The global HIV and AIDS epidemic has affected sub-Saharan Africa more than any other region in the world. AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa account for 72% of AIDS deaths worldwide.

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.

In 2007, a nine-country study in East and Southern Africa was commissioned to map involvement and define roles and responsibilities of civil society in expanded national AIDS responses to orphans and children made vulnerable by AIDS.

This publication describes a successful component of the HIV prevention and control efforts for mobile populations in Can Tho province, The Far Away from Home Club.

In response to the AIDS epidemic and poverty, the Zimbabwean government and other organisations are implementing various programmes aimed at assisting orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in the eight districts surveyed.

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.

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

In South Africa HIV and Aids threaten the world of education if one only looks at prevalence rates. Approximately 5,41 million people in the country are living with HIV and Aids, of whom 257900 are children up to the age of 14.

This paper examines how social protection can be used to protect children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, and specifically, the potential of cash transfers to secure basic subsistence and reduce poverty, while also strengthening the human capital of children - specifically, their education

This discussion paper was developed by UNAIDS, UNIFEM and partners at the request of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women as a background document for the expert panel meeting on the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context o