Enhancing financial literacy, HIV/AIDS skills, and safe social spaces among vulnerable South African youth

Abstract

outh Africa is disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The country has less than one percent of the world’s 15–24-year-olds, yet these young people account for approximately 14 percent of all global HIV infections among this age group. Young women are at particular risk—among 15–24-year-olds, four times as many females as males are living with HIV (16.9 percent versus 4.4 percent) and girls are becoming infected at much faster rates than boys. The HIV incidence ratio among this group is 8-to-1 female-to-male (Shisana et al. 2005). Prevalence is highest in the country’s most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, and among residents of informal urban settlements. Despite these statistics, many HIV/AIDS prevention programs aimed at South African youth focus on a narrow set of topics—often limited to biology and moral values—without addressing the social and economic contexts in which risky sexual behaviors take place. Many programs also fail to acknowledge the diversity of “youth,” or to reach the most vulnerable groups.