Dr Fred Nana Poku, Director, Technical Services of the Ghana AIDS Commission, addressing selected members of youth-focussed groups at the maiden stakeholder meeting

GAC creates special HIV/AIDS desk for youth

Augustina Tawiah Jun - 06 - 2026 , 09:57 2 minutes read

The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has created a youth desk to assemble and acknowledge the voices of young people to be implemented in policy formulations, programme designs and all developmental issues related to HIV and AIDS.

The specialised desk would have a youth desk coordinator, two representatives from youth-led organisations, and two technical support staff from the commission.

Its core purpose would be to strengthen youth participation in HIV programming and policy; promote youth-friendly prevention, treatment, care and support services, as well as serve as a liaison between young people and the commission.

Stakeholder engagement

At a maiden stakeholder meeting with youth-focused groups and organisations to discuss the terms of reference of the desk, the Director General of the Commission, Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, in a speech read on his behalf, observed that hitherto, not much was heard about rising HIV infections among the youth.

He, however, said even though the present absolute numbers may not be so high, young people’s contribution to new infections in general was increasing over the years.

“They were contributing may be 20 to 25 per cent of all the new infections, but now we are seeing 31-30 per cent, which is not so interesting, despite all the efforts that are going on.

Probably, we are missing a little aspect of the whole gig - their perspective and contribution to the reason why this initiative was brought on board,” he explained.

Highlighting the details of the terms of reference of the desk with the stakeholders, Dr Akanbong also took them through key documents that had been developed by the commission, including the youth framework to guide the implementation of HIV activities among the youth, which provided a guide for organisations that work in the HIV space.

On the importance of the creation of the youth desk, he said the youth were disproportionately affected by HIV and had a lot of sexual reproductive health challenges.

In that regard, he said, it was important for them to play critical roles in prevention, advocacy and service for people.

“We do not discount your contribution at all, and we think that there should be a structured platform to help us integrate youth perspectives into all that we do.

That is why we have thought of this Youth Desk. So, we are strengthening youth participation in HIV programming,” Dr Akabong explained.