The papers explore some of the factors that are driving the current epidemic in southern Africa. These include the practice of age disparate and intergenerational sex; biological vulnerability of young women; economic empowerment; education and gender-based violence.

Worldwide, nearly 10 percent of people are ages 10 to 14, and in developing countries, the percentage is often higher (e.g., Uganda, 16 percent).1 Early adolescence marks a critical time of physical, developmental, and social changes.

In 2005, an estimated 48 million children aged 0-18 years, that is to say 12 percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa, were orphans, and that number is expected to rise to 53 million by 2010.

Despite the magnitude and dire consequences of the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa, and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, there is insufficient documentation of the strategies deployed to improve the well-being of these children.

Although HIV can strike anyone, it is not an equal opportunity virus. Gender inequality, poverty, lack of education and inadequate access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services continue to fuel the epidemic. This booklet will detail how and why prevention works.

A study conducted in KwaZulu Natal suggests that utilizing trained youth caregivers is a feasible approach for reaching orphans and vulnerable children with HIV prevention education and support.

The process of linking sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS needs to work in both directions: this means that traditional sexual and reproductive health services need to integrate HIV/AIDS interventions, and also that programmes set up to address the AIDS epidemic need to integrate more ge

Much is going well with the effort to provide universal primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Ministry of Education Policy, Educating our Future, recognizes the fact that good health and nutrition is an essential pre-requisite for effective learning.

This report was commissioned by the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Children affected by HIV and AIDS' working group on National Plans of Action (NPAs).