|
EDUCAIDS and HIV & AIDS Preventive Education
HIV/AIDS prevention education consists of developing awareness,
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will reduce infections and
impact of HIV, including the impact on the education sector itself. It
encompasses access to care, counseling and treatment, education as well
as preserving and enhancing the core functions of the education system
by better planning and management. It aims to empower decision-makers
spanning from authorities deciding on national strategies to individuals
deciding on life-styles.
What is EDUCAIDS?
The Global Initiative on Education and HIV & AIDS (EDUCAIDS) was launched
by the Cosponsoring Organizations of UNAIDS in March 2004 in
Livingstone, Zambia, to support countries by developing comprehensive
education sector-based responses to HIV/AIDS, with a focus on children
and young people, especially those who are most vulnerable. Its three
main objectives are based on the premise that to reach children and
young people with education about HIV and AIDS, one must take a
life-cycle perspective, socially embedding efforts to limit risk and
vulnerability wherever young people are found.
It is conceived as an integral dimension of planning and programming for
Education for All (EFA) and will contribute to enhance HIV/AIDS
prevention in the EFA framework. It is also designed to complement and
link with the WHO/UNAIDS "3 by 5" Initiative to scale up treatment
against HIV/AIDS, to be part of the broader prevention efforts
spearheaded by UNAIDS and to facilitate the implementation of the
so-called "Three Ones" at country level:
-
One agreed HIV/AIDS Action Framework
that provides the basis for coordinating the work of all partners;
-
One National AIDS Coordinating
Authority, with a broad-based multisectoral mandate; and
-
One agreed country-level Monitoring and
Evaluation System.
Why have we
failed at prevention so far?
HIV is not a particularly contagious virus. Barring violence, blood
transfusions and mother-to-child transmissions, one has to do something
to get it. Hence the virus can be prevented from spreading
theoretically.
The virus embodies itself in the most vital of forces: the biological
urge that keeps the human species going.
Most transmissions occur sexually. Hence the epidemic inserts itself in
the core of social life, traditions and beliefs: rights of women, norms
of abstinence and masculinity, work place behaviour, conventions of
family life and privacy and conceptions of sin, decency, deviance,
prostitution and addiction. What otherwise would have been openly
confronted, is therefore often met with silence, denial and
opportunistic avoidance.
The failure of prevention is also due to the way the international
system has responded, lacking in coherence and constituency:
-
By working in parallel, sometimes at
cross-purposes, rather than jointly;
-
By duplicating activities rather than
complementing each other ;
-
By preparing materials not tailored to a
weak administration and fragile infrastructure; and
-
By absorbing national capacity by many
uncoordinated initiatives which increase transaction costs
Why is EDUCAIDS
necessary?
The epidemic is as unrelenting as it is devastating nearly 14.000 new
infections a day, and almost half of them in the age group 15-24.
There is no cure and no cure is in sight. There is no vaccine and no
vaccine is in sight. Scaling up of treatments is imperative and
important enabling infected people to continue living as caring
parents, productive breadwinners and active citizens.
But treatments do not stop the epidemic. For each of the last several
years, some 4-5 million new people have been infected adding to the
number who will need life long treatments in the future and at a
greater suffering and higher cost than preventing the infections.
The sheer number of new infections with the epidemic accelerating in
new areas and with additional millions adversely affected as children,
kin and colleagues demonstrates a massive failure of prevention.
What are the goals of EDUCAIDS?
EDUCAIDS is a renewed commitment to achieve goals already set by the
United Nations as as stated in the Millennium Development Goals (Sept. 2000):
To have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
(Goal 6, Target 7).
In 2001, at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) a
Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was adopted. Among the goals, the
following on prevention were to be reached by 2005:
-
To reduce HIV prevalence rates among
young men and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries by 25
per cent;
-
To ensure: that a wide range of
prevention programmes which take account of local circumstances,
ethics and cultural values, is available in all countries,
particularly the most affected countries; and
-
To ensure that at least 90 per cent, and
by 2010 at least 95 per cent of young men and women aged 15 to 24 have
access to the information, education [...] and services necessary to
develop the life skills required to reduce their vulnerability to HIV
infection.
In short, the goal of EDUCAIDS is to reach
an AIDS-free generation in less than a generation.
What needs to be done?
A generic program in prevention education that is simple and
standardized, yet comprehensive and sensitive to the particulars of each
country and applicable and adaptable to each community.
In its adaptation it must be protective of individuals and supportive of
institutions and well integrated with the "3 by 5" Initiative as well
as other major national and international initiatives.
Country implementation has to be under national leadership and benefit
from the principles of the "Three Ones": one action framework, one
coordinating authority, one monitoring and evaluation system.
Radical measures must be taken. Among them are:
-
Increased awareness and commitment on
HIV/AIDS among opinion leaders and policymakers, particularly those
with influence on education;
-
Policy development to reduce
vulnerability and risk by combining better curricula, teacher
training, workplace policies, school feeding programmes, etc., that
also reach out-of-school youth and orphans and other key populations;
and
-
Improved tools for planning, management
and monitoring.
What are the
criteria for selection of countries?
Criteria have been developed for selection of countries which will
participate in the first phase of EDUCAIDS .These criteria include the
following:
-
Relevance of the objective to national
needs and priorities, as assessed in particular by existing and
projected needs, and existing national sector plans;
-
Likely impact of UNESCOs intervention,
as assessed by existing partnerships and capacities and demonstrated
national commitment to EFA; and
-
Complementarities with existing poverty
reduction strategies and sector-wide frameworks, and with existing
institutions, initiatives, mechanisms and capacities.
On the basis of the above criteria at
least seven countries have been selected in Africa to participate in the
phase of EDUCAIDS. These include: Burundi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia,
Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Top |
