HIV prevention in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland

Southern Africa is the epicentre of the worldwide AIDS epidemic. Despite great efforts over the last two to three decades, rates of new infections in many southern African countries remain stubbornly high. Treatment of infected people with anti-retroviral therapy (ART) prolongs life but is very expensive and not sustainable; prevention of new infections is essential. Most prevention strategies assume that everyone can choose to take the necessary actions to protect themselves. But many people are not able to do so: they are choice disabled.

Since 2008, CIET has been conducting a randomised controlled trial (trial registered as ISRCTN28557578), with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, to test the impact of interventions focusing on the choice disabled, aiming to reduce gender violence and HIV in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. We call this the Choice Disability trial.