Making HIV Prevention Work for Women, 30 for 30 Campaign, March 2012.

The 30 for 30 Campaign briefing paper "Making HIV Prevention Work for Women" is a compilation of the most recent data on issues facing women in HIV prevention, with analysis and recommendations to strengthen and implement policies and programs that work for women. With input from the broad range of organizations and individuals that make up the 30 for 30 Campaign, this briefing paper, along with the companion briefing papers "Making HIV Care and Treatment Work for Women," and "Ending HIV-Related Health Care Disparities for Women," make up an advocacy portfolio for those working to improve the lives of women living with and affected by HIV.

A broad and credible evidence base shows what works to prevent HIV among women and girls in the U.S. But this evidence and the corresponding tools are far from being optimally utilized, and our knowledge base on what works for transgender women and girls must be augmented. Unflinching analysis of the specific needs and rights of women living with and affected by HIV leads us to solutions that, if implemented, can help turn the tide of the HIV epidemic. Greater political will and commitment to addressing the root causes and structural drivers of HIV is needed in order to make successful HIV prevention and care for women and their communities a promise kept, not just a promise made.

Exertion of this political will and commitment is needed now because of the rapid and fundamental changes being shaped by implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While HIV/AIDS programming and funding is moving into place in accordance with the NHAS blueprint, the ACA is simultaneously changing our health care delivery landscape. If the recommendations presented here are not rapidly and explicitly incorporated into both processes, they will remain absent from the new health care environment on primary care and prevention. Written to identify critical service gaps not addressed in ACA guidelines, the report recommends, among other things, the addition of "a fuller range of contraceptive education, counseling, methods and services" and that "all women and adolescent girls be screened and counseled for interpersonal and domestic violence in a culturally sensitive manner", since "[s]creening for risk of abuse is central to women's safety, as well as to addressing current health concerns and preventing future health problems."