The EmpowHER Fund is a strategic investment in women’s rights and leadership, dedicated to accelerating the rollout of and improving access to groundbreaking HIV prevention methods for girls and women. In Sub-Saharan Africa, young women with their rich and intersecting identities are disproportionately affected by HIV. Our mission is to bridge the critical gap between existing and new HIV prevention methods and their actual availability and accessibility. The entire fund is implemented in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.

The Choice that Empowers Her Power (CHOICE) consortium is a three-year, women-led, multi-country consortium under the EmpowHER Fund implemented by Y+ Global in partnership with AYARHEP (Kenya), Women With A Mission (Uganda), and Y+ Kenya. The initiative is being implemented across Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa to strengthen the agency, leadership, and access of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) to the full range of HIV prevention options.

Although significant advances have been made in HIV prevention, AGYW continue to experience disproportionately high rates of new HIV infections. Across Eastern and Southern Africa, structural inequalities, gender-based violence, stigma, misinformation, provider bias, and limited youth-friendly services continue to prevent young women from understanding their HIV risk and accessing prevention methods that align with their needs and life circumstances. As new prevention technologies such as long-acting PrEP and Lenacapavir become available, ensuring that AGYW can make informed choices has never been more important.

CHOICE responds to this challenge by placing adolescent girls and young women at the centre of the HIV prevention response, not only as beneficiaries of services, but as leaders, advocates, and decision-makers. The initiative seeks to transform HIV prevention from a provider-driven model to one that is person-centred, choice-based, and grounded in the lived realities of young women.

Project Goal

To expand informed choice, autonomy, and equitable access to HIV prevention for adolescent girls and young women by strengthening their knowledge, agency, leadership, and access to existing and emerging HIV prevention methods.

Contributing to the EmpowHER Outcomes

CHOICE contributes directly to two of the EmpowHER Fund's outcome areas:

1. Outcome Area 1: Women and girls use the HIV prevention method of their choice
   • The project strengthens AGYW knowledge and self-agency so that young women understand their HIV risk, are aware of the full HIV prevention basket, and are empowered to choose, initiate, switch, and continue using HIV prevention methods that best fit their needs, preferences, and changing life circumstances. Through peer-led education, innovative learning tools, community dialogues, and stronger linkages to youth-friendly services, CHOICE aims to improve informed decision-making and increase equitable access to prevention options.
2. Outcome Area 3: Women and girls influence HIV prevention policies and programmes
   • CHOICE strengthens the leadership and collective power of AGYW by supporting movement-building, advocacy, and meaningful participation in HIV prevention decision-making at the community, district, national, and regional levels. The project equips young women to generate evidence, engage with Ministries of Health and HIV Prevention Technical Working Groups, and advocate for person-centred, youth-friendly HIV prevention policies and service delivery models that reflect their lived experiences.

Our Approach

CHOICE delivers change through three interconnected workstreams that strengthen both individual agency and systems-level change.

1. Building AGYW Agency to Navigate the Full HIV Prevention Basket
   • The project co-designs innovative and engaging tools that help AGYW understand HIV risk and confidently navigate the growing range of HIV prevention options. These include an HIV Risk Assessment Card Game, a Prevention Menu Toolkit, and facilitated safe-space dialogues that encourage honest conversations about relationships, risk, self-care, and prevention in accessible and non-judgemental ways. These interventions are designed to improve prevention literacy and to position HIV prevention as an empowering practice of everyday self-care.
2. AGYW-Led Demand Creation for HIV Prevention
   • CHOICE trains AGYW champions to lead peer education, community outreach, referrals, and demand-creation activities that increase awareness of and uptake of HIV prevention services. The initiative also establishes a Prevention Access Tracker that captures community experiences on product availability, service quality, and user preferences, generating evidence to strengthen programme implementation and support the rollout of emerging prevention technologies such as Lenacapavir.
3. Capacity Strengthening and Policy Influence
   • The project strengthens AGYW leadership, advocacy skills, and collective action to influence HIV prevention guidelines, product introduction, and service delivery models. Working alongside Ministries of Health, civil society organisations, technical working groups, and regional platforms, CHOICE ensures that young women's voices shape HIV prevention policies and programmes across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Where We Work

The CHOICE Initiative is implemented across three countries with a high burden of HIV among adolescent girls and young women:

• Kenya – Nairobi, Homa Bay, and Migori Counties
• Uganda – Mbale City and Mbale District
• South Africa – Soweto, Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province

These implementation areas were selected because they experience high HIV incidence among AGYW, elevated levels of gender-based violence, and are priority locations for the introduction and scale-up of innovative HIV prevention technologies.

Our Vision

CHOICE envisions a future where every adolescent girl and young woman has the knowledge, confidence, agency, and supportive environment to make informed decisions about her HIV prevention journey. By expanding prevention choice, strengthening youth leadership, and ensuring that young women's voices influence policies and programmes, the initiative is contributing to a more equitable, responsive, and person-centred HIV prevention ecosystem across Africa.