Integrating Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Services
RECENT NEWS:
NEW REPORT: Make or Break? 2010: A Pivotal Year for Scaling Up RH/HIV Integration and Accelerating Progress Towards MDGs 5 and 6
NEW REPORT: Initiative pour LʼIntegration des Services de Sante Sexuelle et Reproductive et VIH
NEW REPORT: Initiative for the Integration of Sexual and Reproductive Health/HIV Services
GAA PROGRAM: Mobilizing for RH/HIV Integration Initiative
Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV, Linkages: Evidence Reviews and Recommendations
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and HIV are inextricably linked. They often share contributing factors such as gender inequality, limited access to information, poverty, social marginalization, and stigma. And given that women's primary point of contact with the health care system is through reproductive health services, it is essential that SRHR and HIV/AIDS programs, and services are integrated to ensure increased access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care, and that , policies are linked to create an enabling environment for integration and the protection of human rights. The integration of SRHR/HIV must be addressed at the structural level-ensuring multiple SRHR and HIV services are co-located and that health systems are strengthened to make integrated services work.
The benefits of bidirectional SRHR/HIV integration include: increased safer sex practices; reduced sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; reduced maternal mortality and morbidity; reduced unintended pregnancies; and reduced mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In addition, research has shown potential for reduced stigma and improved efficiency when SRHR and HIV services are integrated.
Since 2006, GAA has been working to increase funding for high-quality SRHR/HIV interventions and to improve the policy environment to support this work through advocacy to the US government, the Global Fund, and the UN family. Beginning with the Global Fund's Round 7, GAA has pursued strategies to increase demand from countries for HIV/AIDS component proposals to the Global Fund that support integrated SRHR/HIV services. In Rounds 8 and 9, GAA was a core partner in the Mobilizing for RH/HIV Integration Initiative, which expanded these goals into ten focus countries. GAA continues to advocate for Global Fund support of SRHR interventions, including through driving demand for proposals that address all three health Millennium Development Goals, MDGs 4, 5 and 6.
BACKGROUND LINKS
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