Despite great progress made against HIV globally, adolescent girls and young women continue to be disproportionately at risk of new HIV infections. Urgent action to reduce the risk of adolescent girls and young women to HIV is vital to end the epidemic.

Acceptability and experience of sexual and gender-based violence is alarmingly high among adolescent girls in Zambia. Even more striking is the very young age from which notions of violence are ingrained and experience with violence begins.

Gender discrimination and gender-based violence fuel the HIV epidemic.

For young girls in developing countries, not knowing how to manage their periods can hinder access to education.

On World AIDS Day 2018, HIV testing is being brought into the spotlight. And for good reason. Around the world, 37 million people are living with HIV, the highest number ever, yet a quarter do not know that they have the virus.

Without addressing HIV-related stigma and discrimination, the world will not achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The global partnership’s goal is to reach zero HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

This position paper presents several strong arguments about why it is imperative to address child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, if we want to succeed in harnessing the demographic dividend in West and Central Africa.

Child marriage in West and Central Africa is one of the biggest challenges in the region and has enormous adverse effects on education, health, including sexual and reproductive health, and on the overall development of adolescents and youth.