The Men & Health consortium: a research and capacity building partnership employing crowdsourcing to develop an intervention to link men to HIV testing and treatment services in South Africa.

Summary

HIV remains a severe public health problem in South Africa. Important gender inequities also persist in the epidemic: the adult prevalence is twice as high in women than in men, while men are significantly less likely to test and be (successfully) treated and thus more likely to die of HIV-related causes. The two are also linked: the heterosexual nature of HIV transmission transfers these male risks into (young) female vulnerabilities (and the high female HIV prevalence). A crucial way to break this destructive cycle is (early) linkage of men to HIV services, creating a need to find feasible strategies to render HIV services male-friendly and accessible.
The project aims to build a research partnership –the Men & Health Consortium– which will strengthen local research capacity as well as the relationships with policy makers and societal stakeholders (building a multi-stakeholder network and improving science-society communication). These activities will enable the consortium to use crowdsourcing (as an innovative methodology) to solicit locally appropriate and specific solutions to increase men’s use of HIV services – which can form the basis for future interventions and policies.

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