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PREVENTIVE EDUCATION ON AIDS

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AIDS EPIDEMIC UPDATE: DECEMBER 2001

At the end of 2001, an estimated 40 million people globally were living with HIV. In many parts of the developing world, the majority of new infections occur in young adults, with young women especially vulnerable. About one-third of those currently living with HIV/AIDS are aged 15-24. Most of them do not know they carry the virus. Many millions more know nothing or too little about HIV to protect themselves against it.

Sub-Saharan Africa - the crisis grows
AIDS killed 2.3 million African people in 2001. The estimated 3.4 million new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa in the past year mean that 28.1 million Africans now live with the virus. Without adequate treatment and care, most of them will not survive the next decade. Recent antenatal clinic data show that several parts of southern Africa have now joined Botswana with prevalence rates among pregnant women exceeding 30%. In West Africa, at least five countries are experiencing serious epidemics, with adult HIV prevalence exceeding 5%. However, HIV prevalence among adults continues to fall in Uganda, while there is evidence that prevalence among young people (especially women) is dropping in some parts of the continent.

Greater commitment
Greater and more effective prevention, treatment and care efforts need to be brought to bear. During the year 2001, the resolve to do so became stronger than ever.
History was made when the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001 set in place a framework for national and international accountability in the struggle against the epidemic. Each government pledged to pursue a series of many benchmark targets relating to prevention, care, support and treatment, impact alleviation, and children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, as part of a comprehensive AIDS response. These targets include the following:

To reduce HIV infection among 15-24-year-olds by 25% in the most affected countries by 2005 and, globally, by 2010;

By 2005, to reduce the proportion of infants infected with HIV by 20%, and by 50% by 2010;

By 2003, to develop national strategies to strengthen health-care systems and address factors affecting the provision of HIV-related drugs, including affordability and pricing. Also, to urgently make every effort to provide the highest attainable standard of treatment for HIV/AIDS, including antiretroviral therapy in a careful and monitored manner to reduce the risk of developing resistance;

By 2003, to develop and, by 2005, implement national strategies to provide a supportive environment for orphans and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS;

By 2003, to have in place strategies that begin to address the factors that make individuals particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, including under-development, economic insecurity, poverty, lack of empowerment of women, lack of education, social exclusion, illiteracy, discrimination, lack of information and/or commodities for self-protection, and all types of sexual exploitation of women, girls and boys;

By 2003, to develop multisectoral strategies to address the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at the individual, family, community and national levels.

UNESCO'S STRATEGY FOR HIV/AIDS PREVENTIVE EDUCATION

UNESCO's contribution will focus strongly on preventive education, both formal and non-formal, but with careful attention to the effectiveness of different preventive strategies in securing behavioural and attitudinal change. Based on interdisciplinary foundations, UNESCO's approach will embrace the cultural perspective on HIV/AIDS care and prevention and will emphasise the importance of a well-developed communicating strategy to convey preventive messages to targeted audiences.

UNESCO's strategy for HIV/AIDS involves collaboration with other United Nations agencies at the international level through active involvement in the UNAIDS programme.

At the regional level, notably through the field offices, collaborative mechanisms will be set up to assist countries in preparing and implementing the HIV/AIDS-related components of their national plans of action and to integrate them in the national plan of action EFA (Education for All).

At the national level, concrete support will be made available to help Member States to mainstream HIV/AIDS prevention into all aspects of educational policy, particularly through the redesign of teacher training and curricula in ways that are sensitive to cultural diversity and ethical issues. Emphasis will be placed on changing risk behaviour through the promotion of formal and informal education programmes directed towards pupils, university students, out-of school youth, and adults.

AIDS: IT IS TIME FOR SCHOOLS TO ACT

School is a priority context for AIDS education since it offers immense possibilities in preventing the infection and in fighting against discrimination:

through education, an important part of the population can be reached effectively: young people, educational staff, families, members of the community

education raises awareness at an age when the ways of life can still be shaped

education represents a channel through which the community can vehicle its message for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and push its policies for the fight against discrimination
(http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/pead/CadAIDGB.html)

Even though many young people in developing countries do not go to school regularly or for a long time, it still remains that a large number actually do. The opportunity must therefore be seized to provide as from the first year of primary school an education on AIDS that is adapted to that age group. Studies made in several types of environments that are culturally and ethnically different have shown that sex education programmes do not necessarily lead to a more intensive precocious sexual activity amongst teenagers.

THE IMPACT OF AIDS ON EDUCATION

"The threat posed by HIV/AIDS to the achievements of EFA goals and to development more broadly, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, present an enormous challenge. The terrifying impact of HIV/AIDS on education demands, supply and quality requires explicit and immediate attention in national policy-making and planning. Programmes to control and reduce the threat of the virus must make maximum use of education's potential to transmit messages on prevention and to change attitudes and behaviours." World Education Forum, The Dakar Framework for Action, April, 1999 para 27, p.14

The progression of AIDS has an impact on the sector of education, including on donor-based education programmes. The implications for this sector are namely a drop in enrolment figures, a reduction of the services provided and a reduction of the resources available for education. These consequences require adjustments in order to cater for special needs, such as changes in the curricula, the modification of the role of teachers and of the educational system and the adaptation of the nature and volume of support provided by donors to the countries involved to help them face these challenges (Kelly, M., 1990 : Planning for education in the context of HIV/AIDS . UNESCO: International Institute for Educational Planning).

SENSITIZATION AND MOBILISATION OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS AND PLANNERS

To reinforce preventive education on HIV/AIDS at school, UNESCO-BREDA organised a regional seminar on education and AIDS in the school system in Francophone West Africa. This seminar was held in Dakar (Senegal) in 1997 and was attended by representatives from 13 countries of West and Central Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo).

The seminar led to the outlining of action plans and to recommendations, namely supporting the implementation of elaborated action plans, the co-ordination of interventions and the training of teachers (UNESCO-BREDA, 1997, Prévenir le VIH/SIDA en milieu scolaire, un défi pour l'Afrique Francophone, Déclaration de Dakar et grandes lignes des plans d'action nationaux des pays francophones / Preventing HIV/AIDS in the school environment: a challenge for Francophone Africa, Dakar Declaration and main points of the national action plans of francophone countries)

In March 2001, UNESCO Ghana organised in close co-operation with ONUSIDA, Geneva, and the Ministry of Education and Foreign Affairs of Ghana, a conference of senior experts on AIDS and Education in West Africa.

The goals of the conference were:

to assess the situation on the issue of AIDS in the region and the level of mobilisation and organisation within the education sector among ECOWAS countries;

to share the information, experiences and the most adequate practices identified in the area of AIDS/Education;

to elaborate a national and regional strategic framework of action aimed at strengthening national policies and programmes.