The Health Policy Project ended in 2016. Work continued under Health Policy Plus (HP+) until 2022.
What Works for Women & Girls: Evidence for HIV/AIDS Interventions is a comprehensive website (www.whatworksforwomen.org) documenting the evidence for effective HIV interventions to guide donors, policymakers, and program managers in planning effective HIV/AIDS policies and programs for women and girls. This comprehensive review spans more than 2,000 articles and reports with data from more than 90 countries. It contains—in one centralized, searchable location—the evidence of successful gender-specific programming from global programs and studies, with a focus on the Global South.
In designing HIV/AIDS programs, policymakers and program planners are faced with a wide array of possible programming. With scarce resources and growing demand for services, priorities must be based on effective interventions. What Works serves the unique function of bringing all of these topics together to provide a full range of successful gender-sensitive programming for women and girls.
What Works is a one-stop shop of successful strategies for women and girls on a range of topics, including:
- Prevention for women, including condom use, partner reduction, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and treatment as prevention
- Prevention for key affected groups of women such as sex workers, drug users, prisoners, migrants, and transgendered women and men
- Prevention for young people, including behavior change and access to services
- HIV testing and counseling
- Treatment provision, access, adherence, and support
- Meeting of the sexual/reproductive health needs of women living with HIV
- Safe motherhood and prevention of vertical transmission
- Prevention, detection and treatment of co-infections such as TB, malaria, and hepatitis
- Strengthening of the enabling environment, including transforming gender norms, legal norms, advancing education, reducing violence against women, promoting women’s employment, reducing stigma and discrimination, and promoting women’s leadership
- Care and support for women and girls, and orphans and vulnerable children
- Structuring of health services to meet women’s needs
What Works complements existing guidelines from international agencies and is designed to spur national governments, donors, and civil society to consult the evidence base when designing programs and to set a research agenda based on critical gaps for women and girls.
What's New
Brief: Violence Against Women - A Summary of Issues, Interventions, and Evidence
An overview examining how gender-based violence increases the risk of HIV, as part of What Works for Women and Girls: Evidence for HIV/AIDS Interventions. (PDF)
What Works for Women & Girls is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Open Society Foundations and is being carried out under the auspices of the USAID-supported Health Policy Project and the Public Health Institute. For more information, please visit www.whatworksforwomen.org