This edition of Highlights on “Studies of HIV in African communities” includes findings and recommendations around the topic of fertility in African communities affected by HIV.
Produced by IDS Knowledge Services with partners in the ALPHA Network, the publication is based on the research which came out of the Network’s seventh workshop on ‘HIV & Fertility: an examination of the bio-social and behavioural impacts of HIV on fertility’, held in Tanzania in April 2011.
This ‘Highlights’, which describes fertility issues in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, covers more specifically:
- family planning challenges in Uganda in the era of HIV
- dramatic decline in teenage pregnancy in Zimbabwe
- investigates links between high marital fertility and population explosion in Uganda
- delayed childbearing and lower HIV risk amongst educated Malawian women
- high fertility rates among young HIV-positive women in Kenya
The ALPHA Network aims to maximise the usefulness of data generated in community based longitudinal HIV studies in sub-Saharan Africa for national and international agencies involved in designing or monitoring interventions and epidemiological forecasting. The project links several existing HIV cohort studies and runs training workshops to facilitate replication of analyses of demographic correlates and consequences of HIV infection previously published in just one or two sites. Comparative studies and meta-analyses are undertaken on comparable data sets, imposing a common format on data collected and stored in a variety of ways.
IDS Knowledge Services seek to provide a bridge between research, policy and practice by delivering and supporting a range of information-sharing services, and strengthening the ability of others to do the same.
Editors
