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UNESCO consultation on the role of schools in providing HIV
treatment, care and support
Introduction
UNESCO, in collaboration with the National Commission of Botswana
for UNESCO, convened a technical consultation that brought together
representatives from Ministries of Education, research institutions,
UN Agencies and the civil society of 7 Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia,
South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It aimed to identify
recommendations to further strengthen and scale up the roles of
schools in providing HIV treatment, care and support in Southern
Africa, based on evidence and current models. Forty two people
participated in the meeting, held from 22 to 24 May in Gaborone,
Botswana.
The consultation focused on Southern Africa, the region most highly
affected by HIV and AIDS globally. Schools have been identified as
key vehicles in responding to the changing needs of learners,
educators and communities.
Key assumptions considered that guided the discussions in the
three-day event included the fact that:
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in Southern Africa, every school is
affected by HIV and it is not “business as usual”;
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EFA goals in the region are
unobtainable unless schools take a more active role in
responding to the impact of HIV and AIDS on the school and local
community;
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it is impossible to respond to the
needs of learners without also responding to the needs of
educators and communities; and
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the education sector cannot and
should not act alone - all sectors need to examine the role they
can play and how they can collaborate in scaling-up access to
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
Furthermore, the consultation
acknowledged that schools have a vital role to play in contributing
to universal access. Thus, the response of schools to HIV and AIDS
should not be limited to HIV prevention education but should be
comprehensive and inclusive, supporting all the dimensions of
universal access: prevention, treatment, care and support.
Objectives of the Consultation
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Identify the needs of learners,
educators and communities in regards to HIV and AIDS treatment,
care and support;
-
Identify essential components and
underlining principles for schools-centred HIV treatment, care
and support programmes;
-
Ascertain what needs to be done in
order to support schools to act as centres of care and support
for communities, given how over-stretched education systems are
in the region; and
-
Identify what needs to be done and
what strategies need to be in place in order to scale-up models
of best practice.
Highlights of the Consultation
School visits and identifying the needs of educators, learners
and communities
Participants visited 3 schools (2 primary and one secondary school)
participating in the Botswana Circles of Support programme, offering
care and support to vulnerable children. This provided them with an
opportunity to witness the impact of the pilot projects implemented
by the Botswana Ministry of Education and its partners, which
include the Institute of Development Management and Health
Development Africa. In each school, they met with the school
management committee responsible for implementing the Circles of
Support programme.
Discussions followed, focusing on what the needs of educators,
learners and communities are: how they relate to each group and how
they overlap with the needs of the other two groups.
Existing Programmes in the region
While most school-centred care and
support programmes currently focus on children, the discussions
aimed at identifying means to expand the scope of future programmes
using a more holistic approach - not seeing children in isolation
but viewing the needs of the community as a whole: learners,
educators and communities.
Scaling Up of Programmes, Monitoring and Evaluation
A significant part of the discussions also touched on issues related
to scaling up of programmes based on evidence presented during the
consultation. A major assumption highlighted for scaling up of
school-centred programmes was that schools are the only institutions
with a mandate to provide Education for All for children and yet
cannot do this without addressing the different forms of
vulnerabilities that exist. Scaling up was advocated for on
condition that it promoted institutional reform.
A major area of concern was how to identify models for scaling up
programmes without adequate evidence of existing programmes’ impact.
Monitoring and evaluation was identified as an area that remains to
be strengthened for effective documenting and monitoring the
progress of programmes and evaluating their impact.
The consultation provided an opportunity to discuss management,
monitoring tools and indicators that could be integrated to
strengthen programmes. An example of the District Education
Management and Monitoring Information System (DEMMIS) developed by
the Mobile Task Team in South Africa to measure key indicators that
could then be used to inform policy and planning was presented.
Essential components and underlining principles
There was unanimous agreement that the content of any programme has
to depend on, and address the needs of, schools at the school level.
Thus, while acknowledging that each school will require a tailored
project, some essential (non-negotiable) programme components based
on underlining principles that apply to all must first be
identified. Such essential components and underlining principles
based on the discussions during the consultation were presented and
will be finalised and disseminated through the meeting’s published
report.
Emerging Issues and Follow-up actions
The SADC Ministers of Education Communiqué offers a major building
block for any action on scaling up school-centred treatment, care
and support in the region. To address the need to ascertain progress
made by SADC countries in implementing the commitments made in
Swaziland in 2005, participating organizations (UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP,
FAO and Commonwealth Secretariat) agreed to undertake a review and
stock-taking of current and past actions at community, country and
regional levels.
Gender-related and –based vulnerabilities were identified as key
factors in contributing to HIV-related treatment, care and support
needs of learners, educators and communities. These factors must be
taken into consideration in the design, implementation, monitoring
and evaluation of programmes.
Furthermore, while HIV and AIDS provides an opportunity and a ‘lens’
to identify models for strengthening the roles of schools in
treatment, care and support, programmes should use an inclusive and
non discriminatory approach towards addressing the needs of all
groups of young people including young people living with HIV, young
people with disabilities, and children facing any form of obstacles
towards accessing quality education.
A report synthesising the discussions and recommendations made
during the consultation will be made available between August and
September 2007.
For more information contact:
aids@unesco.org .
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