This project brief presents the GenEqual Fellowship Programme, an initiative by IHAT to strengthen the leadership and participation of Young Key Populations (YKP) in gender-responsive and lateralised HIV programming in Delhi NCR.

YKPs can face overlapping gender, age, social, and structural barriers that increase HIV vulnerability and affect access to prevention, care and other health services. The GenEqual fellowship aims to strengthen their knowledge, skills, and leadership to identify, design, implement, monitor, and advocate for gender-responsive and lateralised HIV interventions. It focuses on building the capacity of YKP Fellows, strengthening partnerships with community-based organisations, NGOs, and government, expanding gender-responsive interventions, and generating learning to support programme improvement and scale-up.

The Fellowship uses three strategic approaches: program science, lateralisation, and gender integration, that support the use of evidence in programme design, help identify interconnected health and social vulnerabilities, and examine how gender and power influence HIV vulnerability, access to services and programme outcomes. The fellowship has a governance structure which includes a Working Group and Technical Advisory Panel. Process documentation and process evaluation have been integrated with ongoing implementation to support learning and adaptation guided by the programme’s Theory of Change.

The brief also introduces the GenEqual Fellows, who represent diverse YKPs, including female sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender individuals and people who inject drugs.