The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Inequalities In Knowledge Of HIV/AIDS Prevention

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This note presents a summary overview of information about socio-economic andgender inequalities in knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention, produced by a series of country studies undertaken by the World Bank's thematic group on health, nutrition, population and poverty. The studies provide information, based on analysis of household data collected by the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program, concerning poor-rich coverage and gender differences for twenty-three countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean.


The principal general findings are:

  • Knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention is distinctly higher among the better-offthan among the disadvantaged in almost every country with available data. On average, the 80+% knowledge rate in the wealthiest quintile is on the order of 60% or 20-25 percentage points above the 55-60% among the lowest quintile.
  • The poor-rich differences just noted are distinctly smaller, and knowledgeamong the poor is distinctly higher in Sub-Saharan Africa than in Latin America. Among the countries in each region, the average knowledge rate is approximately the same (around 70%). So is the knowledge rate in the wealthiest quintile (just over 80%). But the knowledge rate among the poorest quintile averages 60-65% in the Sub-Saharan African countries, 50-55% in the Latin American/Caribbean countries.
  • Distinct gender differences in HIV/AIDS prevention also exist in mostcountries, with knowledge among men averaging around 75%, compared with anaverage of roughly 65% among women.
  • If knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention is seen as an ultimate outcome ofcommunication and education programs and compared with comparable data for other types of health program, the record of HIV/AIDS prevention knowledge efforts look relatively favorable. That is, while the levels of HIV/AIDS prevention knowledge among the disadvantaged, and disparities between the disadvantaged and the better-off are considerably larger than one might wish, they are not nearly so low among the disadvantaged, or so biased against them, than the achievement indicators for most other types of program.

Click here to download this 12-page paper in PDF format [52 KB].