MenStar seeks to expand the diagnosis and treatment of men living with HIV, with the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Data from UNAIDS and PEPFAR programs around the world shows that we are not adequately reaching at-risk men, particularly those ages 24-35 years, with HIV treatment services. This is endangering men’s own health and helping fuel the spread of HIV among adolescent girls and young women. That is why, PEPFAR and partners seek to reach an additional one million men with treatment and to support over 95% of men ages 24-35 to achieve viral suppression.

At the 2018 International AIDS Conference, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, launched MenStar, a coalition to expand HIV diagnosis and treatment among men in developing countries. The US$1.2 billion coalition brings together public sector HIV service delivery capacities and private sector consumer-oriented marketing acumen, with partners including PEPFAR, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Global Fund and UNITAID.

Through grant funding, Gilead supports the coalition’s innovative approaches to deliver HIV services to men, in order to increase earlier uptake of HIV testing, linkage to care and viral suppression. MenStar’s strategy utilizes a framework, based on data from MenStar research, to understand the barriers to treatment some men face across the HIV care cascade. Five categories of men within the HIV care cascade were identified: undiagnosed, not linked to care, newly in treatment, lost to follow-up and virally suppressed. To reach men in each of these categories, a core package of services was developed to meet men’s needs across the treatment cascade. Tactics include targeted marketing, application of data analytics, demand creation and supply-side solutions.

Examples of programs focused on men, which use the MenStar approach include:

• MINA (South Africa)
• MenConnect (South Africa)
• Virtually Accelerating Linkage of Men to Reframed HIV Services (VALOR) Initiative (Nigeria)
• Dablap-CCMDD (South Africa)
• Somos Iguais (Mozambique)
• Chukua Selfie (Kenya)

The coalition partners seek to enhance each other’s work and accelerate progress towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets.