Key Populations: Evidence in Action - Webinar Series

The Linkages across the Continuum of HIV Services for Key Populations Affected by HIV (LINKAGES) project is hosting monthly webinars in order to optimise service delivery for key populations - sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and transgender people. The webinars are intended to be a platform for: (1) sharing knowledge, emerging evidence, and promising practices for achieving greater impact on the HIV epidemic through programmes for key populations; (2) addressing pressing questions and controversial issues from the perspective of key population experts and community members; and (3) fostering dialogue among a broad set of partners working in key-population-focused research, programming, and advocacy.

The webinars cover a range of topics, including: introduction and scale-up of HIV self-testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis for key populations; cascade monitoring and data use; information and communication technology (ICT)-based interventions; effective strategies for addressing violence, stigma, and discrimination; differentiated models for delivering antiretroviral therapy; and community empowerment.

This webinar series is open to anyone interested in key populations, including programme implementers, researchers, policymakers, advocates, funders, and community members.

Webinars to date include:

Social networks, vulnerability, and sex: Improving HIV case finding among key populations -  This webinar included presentations by Linkages partners on social network interventions to improve HIV case finding among female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs. Presentations included:

• Introduction and the purpose of social networking interventions in the HIV cascade - Stephen Mills, FHI 360/LINKAGES/Thailand
• Innovative active HIV case finding in Myanmar for key populations: A focus on the most underprivileged and underserved groups - Kiira Gustafson, Population Services International/Myanmar
• Optimized case finding as a strategy to improve the HIV care continuum for people who inject drugs - Olga Denisiuk, Alliance for Public Health/Ukraine
• How the enhanced peer outreach approach improved HIV yield among female sex workers and men who have sex with men in Botswana - Wame Dikobe, FHI 360/LINKAGES/Botswana

Enumerating key populations: setting denominators, targeting interventions, and measuring impact - This webinar included presentations on empirically-based population size estimation, mapping methodologies, and reaching key populations in areas without primary data collection. Presentations included:

• Overview of empirical methods for population size estimation that may be linked to biobehavioral surveys - Dimitri Prybylski, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Progression approach: generating key population size estimation data to facilitate program implementation and target setting where data do not exist - Didier Kamali, FHI 360/LINKAGES/Cote d’Ivoire
• Small area estimation for key populations - Stefan Baral, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• The unknowns - understanding and reaching non venue-based key populations - Tobi Saidel, Partnership for Epidemic Analysis