Publications

Migrant women human rights defenders include women, girls, and gender-diverse persons of all ages who promote and protect the human rights of people on the move, whether they are migrants themselves or not, regardless of their migration status, and irrespective of whether they self-identify as a woman human rights defender. These recommendations are a call to action to all stakeholders to recognize and address the risks facing migrant women human rights defenders and put in place measures to promote and protect human rights unhindered so that migrants in all their diversity can live, work, and move safely and with dignity.

Transgender people often experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including in criminal justice systems. Evidence indicates that such marginalisation, criminalisation and discrimination can lead to greater vulnerability to and risk of long-term mental and physical health issues, including increased risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and experience of sexual assault. This technical brief sets out guiding principles and targeted interventions aimed at supporting countries in reducing the risk of HIV infection and transmission among, and ensuring adequate and accessible health care for, transgender people deprived of liberty by State authorities in prisons and other closed settings. Policymakers and prison authorities should understand the needs of transgender people and incorporate the proposed evidence- and human rights-based interventions and international standards into their prison policies and strategies, applying them to all people in prison.  

WHO’s sentinel surveys of acquired HIV resistance to dolutegravir among people receiving dolutegravir-containing antiretroviral therapy is intended for easy and frequent implementation. Results from sentinel surveys provide insight into the prevalence and year-over-year trends of dolutegravir resistance in adults, children and adolescents receiving dolutegravir-based ART. This sentinel method is implemented complementary to WHO-recommended methods for estimating nationally representative levels of acquired HIV drug resistance. 

This publication is primarily intended for national and local policy-makers; global, regional, country and local programme implementers; organizations working in and providers of health, HIV, mental health and other relevant services; civil society; and community-based and community-led organizations and advocates. It brings together and refers to existing HIV and mental health, psychosocial support and other service provision guidelines, recommendations and tools, including the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) mhGAP intervention guide and mhGAP operations manual; WHO, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other guidelines and tools related to substance use; and WHO consolidated guidelines, tools and resources on HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care.

This information brief is intended for key population networks and other community-led and community-based organizations to help them better understand how to request funding support for community-led monitoring (CLM) in 2023-2025 applications to the Global Fund. The brief has been jointly developed by TREAT Asia/amfAR and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC).

This report, which marks World AIDS Day 2022, unpacks the impact that gender inequalities, inequalities faced by key populations, and inequalities between children and adults have had on the AIDS response. It is not inevitable, however, that these inequalities will slow progress towards ending AIDS. We know what works—with courage and cooperation, political leaders can tackle them.

The 2022 Global Strategy progress report provides an assessment of the situation of women’s, children’s and adolescent’s health in this third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report presents abundant evidence showing that inequities persist despite great progress in reducing maternal and child mortality in the two decades leading up to the pandemic. It also showcases key drivers of women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being. It emphasizes that women’s empowerment and adolescent participation are pivotal to achieving the 2030 Agenda yet notes that there is a long way to go in reducing gender inequality and increasing young people’s meaningful opportunities to actively engage in community and civic life. 

UNFPA implements programmes addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in 153 countries and territories, many of which face humanitarian emergencies. Leading resources used by GBV practitioners include the Inter-Agency Minimum Standards for Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies Programming (the GBViE Minimum Standards) released in 2019 and the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence released in 2015. Experiences across UNFPA have shown that GBV practitioners have faced challenges in determining when and how to use these tools and how to adapt different approaches to diverse contexts. This brief guidance note defines the distinct objectives of and links between these two resources. It supports GBV practitioners in navigating the use of both across a range of contexts. 

The Manual on Social Norms and Change is a revision of the initial version developed and published by UNFPA and UNICEF in 2016. It aims to contribute to create conceptual clarity and present programmatic interventions needed to address and facilitate a social norms change with focus on the elimination of female genital mutilation. The manual provides practical examples and theoretical concepts for understanding processes related to attitudinal and collective behavioural change and contains the following five key modules to be covered in a five-day workshop: Dynamic of Social Norms: Female Genital Mutilation, From Gender Inequality to Shared Positive Social Norms, Effective Legislative Reforms in Situations Calling for Social Change, Seven Common Patterns and Transformative Elements for Change and Putting It All Together.

This Technical Brief summarizes the previous Compendium on social norm change to achieve gender equality, which provides a framework for programmatic approaches to norm change at scale. The Technical Brief and Compendium present promising strategies, tested approaches and practical examples of social norm change. This includes a programme design framework that is relevant for different aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights in various contexts. The publications build on previous work by UN agencies, civil society, academia and others.