GYCA is a youth-led, UNAIDS and UNFPA supported alliance of over 3000 young leaders and adult allies working on youth and HIV/AIDS in 150 countries world-wide. It was proposed by youth worldwide. GYCA empowers young leaders with the skills, knowledge, resources and opportunities they need to scale up HIV/AIDS interventions amongst their peers.

Four priorities guide GYCA's work:

Networking and sharing of best pracitces;
Technical assistance and capacity building;
Political advocacy;
Preparation for international conferences.

GYCA operates on two tiers. The first, through information communication technology (ICT) with free capacity-building e-courses, discussion fora, and online resources; and the second, through local gatherings and regional partnerships.
GYCA is coordinated by a North Secretariat that acts as a catalyst for a decentralized network, operating through a Task Force of youth and adult allies including people living with HIV/AIDS, 12 Regional Focal Points, a growing number of National Focal Points worldwide, and members representing an array of organizations, programmes, and networks focusing on youth and HIV/AIDS.

Principle Values

GYCA decision-makers include youth living with HIV/AIDS, and the Coalition is committed to working with and for marginalized youth such as injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers, youth in resource-constrained areas without access to information communication technology (ICT), and others, and aims to create meaningful youth-adult partnerships.

GYCA advocates for a human rights-based approach to HIV/AIDS interventions that includes full and accurate information, education and services including condoms and needle exchange. . Because most young people are infected with HIV through sexual intercourse, GYCA reaffirms that sexual and reproductive health and rights must be integrated with HIV/AIDS interventions to succeed.

HIV/AIDS is a preventable and treatable disease. Yet today, 6,000 young people will be infected with HIV, most of them young women. Moreover, over half of the 5 million people infected each year are under 25 years old. Poverty, unemployment, a lack of education, sexual violence, and gender inequality increase the vulnerability of young people to HIV infection.

15 million children and adolescents have been orphaned by AIDS and are now heads of households, as we lose an entire generation of parents, teachers, workers, and doctors in many regions. And although world leaders committed that by 2005, 90% of young people would know how to protect themselves from infection, currently in the hardest hit countries, less than half of youth can correctly identify modes of HIV transmission.

Yet despite the debilitating effects of AIDS, young leaders are taking action in their communities to prevent the spread of the disease and to address the devastating consequences of the pandemic. In fact, evidence shows that young people are most effective at changing the risk behaviors of their peers and at shaping a better future for themselves and their families.

Still, when it comes to international development, young leaders are too often marginalized and left out of important interventions. It is an accepted fact that development is most successful when change comes from within a community itself not from outsiders. The Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) recognizes the potential of young leaders as the best force to address HIV/AIDS in their own communities, and empowers them with the knowledge, skills, resources and opportunities they need to scale up and expand their initiatives.