New HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years, according to a joint report released today from UNAIDS and WHO. Needless to say, there is much to be proud of as we mark the 21st anniversary of World AIDS Day. However, as we take time today to reflect on the struggles and successes of the past three decades, it’s important we also prepare for the battles to come.

Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé said, “The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are due, at least in part, to HIV prevention.” He added, “However, the findings also show that prevention programming is often off the mark and that if we do a better job of getting resources and programs to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more lives saved.”

To help program managers and others hit that mark, K4Health in partnership with the USAID/Southern Africa Regional Program (RHAP) is strengthening knowledge management (KM) initiatives in the region. The Knowledge for Health Southern Africa (K4HSA) program will facilitate knowledge capturing, synthesis, and sharing among audiences who work in the response against HIV/AIDS across Southern Africa. Something that we believe will promote the use and scale-up of best practices, lead to better results, and ultimately save more lives.

We have also identified local partners to participate in the regional KM initiative, and alliances and synergies have been developed with partners, including AIDSPortal, Soul City, Soul Beat, PSI, and UNAIDS. SAfAIDS was also identified to become the operational partner of K4HSA in the region.

In addition to our work in Southern Africa, K4Health is excited to announce the publication of two toolkits related to HIV prevention, including:

* Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (http://www.k4health.org/node/361)
* Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships (http://www.k4health.org/toolkits/MCP)

We also have toolkits on condom use and family planning and HIV integration in the pipeline.

Our toolkits (http://www.k4health.org/toolkits) are developed from the collaborative efforts of working groups worldwide, and they capture the best knowledge surrounding a particular topic. They also allow individuals to comment and suggest other resources, including grey literature. By facilitating virtual collaboration, we hope to tap into the online collectivism around HIV prevention and create the best repositories of information that live on and evolve for people on the front lines.

Would you like to learn more about the integration of HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health? Visit our resource page (http://www.hivandsrh.org/) to see the featured resources, events, or join a discussion. Our funder USAID also released a very informative newsletter, “Working Together in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS,” (http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/home/News/enewsletter/index....) that we encourage you to visit.

Philippe LeMay, Deputy Director
http://www.k4health.org