The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA) is a global alliance of practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and activists concerned with the well-being of children living in a world with HIV/AIDS. The Initiative’s research tasks range across child survival, the role of families and communities, service provision, governance issues, and calculating the cost of an adequate response to children’s needs—as well as the cost of failure to act. JLICA’s goal is to protect and fulfill the rights of children affected by HIV/AIDS by mobilizing the scientific evidence base and producing actionable recommendations for policy and practice.

The FXB Center hosts the JLICA's secretariat, as well as one of its Learning Groups.

JLICA was formally launched in October 2006 and will continue its work until the end of 2008. The Initiative pursues the following objectives:

• Mobilizing and generating evidence: JLICA gathers and assesses scientific evidence on operational, political and public policy issues related to children and HIV/AIDS, as well as documenting experiential knowledge emerging from communities of practice.
  
  
• Expanding space for new thinking: JLICA engenders multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral interaction and synthesis that stimulates innovative thinking and problem solving, while engaging new expertise.
  
  
• Advancing action: JLICA brings practitioners, policymakers and scholars together to examine evidence and forge consensus on what needs to be done, how and by whom. This includes developing recommendations, prioritizing responses, and advocating action.
  
  
• Facilitating linkages: Although many groups are engaged with issues of HIV/AIDS and children, there is insufficient communication across disciplines and between communities of knowledge. Knowledge generated from research on the one hand and policy and practice on the other must be linked more closely. The HIV/AIDS field can also learn from other bodies of knowledge and practice. JLICA will function as a nervous system connecting people, ideas and sectors.

The bulk of JLICA’s scientific work will be conducted by four thematic Learning Groups. The themes are: strengthening families; community action; ensuring rights and access to essential services; social and economic policies.

Each Learning Group is coordinated by two Co-Chairs and will include a core of approximately 10-15 practitioners, policymakers and scholars, as well as broader circles of experts working in consultative capacities. Learning Group membership will incorporate gender and geographical balance, disciplinary diversity, and strong representation from high-burden countries. Learning Group Co-Chairs join the two Initiative Co-Chairs and JLICA’s founding partner organizations in ongoing advocacy to promote action based on the Initiative’s recommendations.