We’re posting a short announcement here from colleagues at STRIVE, which was recently launched at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We look forward to critical exchange and debate!

From Hillary Rodham Clinton onwards, everyone at the 2012 International AIDS Conference agreed that tackling structural factors – such as stigma and gender-based violence – is essential to effective prevention. But how? To divert funding, policy and programming into multi-sectoral, upstream interventions requires powerful evidence and arguments. And that’s the purpose of STRIVE, an international research consortium based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with partners in India, South Africa, Tanzania and the US.

The consortium investigates:

• how structural forces shape HIV vulnerability and intersect with development agendas
• what related programmes and interventions are proving effective
• how such interventions can, affordably, be taken to scale
• how best to translate this research into policy and practice

Work within STRIVE ranges from original research (such as a study on transactional sex among rural Tanzanian adolescent girls), to innovative modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis, to evidence synthesis (such as a comprehensive report on what works to prevent partner violence). As AIDS budgets shrink, STRIVE prioritises the synergies between development and HIV objectives. Stay tuned via the monthly Digest, and sign up for monthly Learning Labs.