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UNESCO / Japanese Funds-in-Trust Projects
1. Development of
Leadership Skills in the Management of HIV and AIDS in Secondary
Schools in Botswana
Botswana, like all other Sub-Saharan
countries, has been greatly affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. According
to the 2002 Sentinel Surveillance, it is estimated that over 35.4% of
sexually active population aged from 15 – 49 years in Botswana are HIV
positive. Consequently, the President of the Republic of Botswana, declared
HIV and AIDS a national emergency in 1997 so that the whole nation and the
international community join efforts to fight the pandemic. During National
Development Plan 8, two studies on impact of HIV and AIDS on the education
sector showed that enrolments were adversely affected and that productivity
of teachers was also affected by increased morbidity, absenteeism and
mortality
The pandemic therefore impacts negatively on curriculum delivery and the
desired quality education for all. Against this background, the education
system is challenged to provide an enabling environment for its target
population, hence the need for a committed leadership to lead, guide and
support implementation of responsive HIV and AIDS programmes in a changed
teaching and learning environment. . Therefore a competent leadership is
required if the national vision of no new infections by 2009 is to be
realised.
Currently the Ministry of Education has a series of HIV and AIDS programmes
aimed at the schools’ system. Many of these programmes have as their target
groups learners and teachers. However, there are no programmes that target
secondary schools management personnel. Therefore this project is build on
the existing programmes targeting the management in order to strengthen
school level responses.
The project aims at schools management teams which include School heads,
Heads of Departments (Pastoral Care) Senior Teachers Grade 1 (Guidance &
Counselling) HIV and AIDS Coordinators and Staff Development Coordinators.
Since the first reported case of HIV and AIDS in 1985, Botswana Government
has put in place HIV and AIDS coordinating and management structures. The
National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) is the lead agency. Botswana
receives international assistance in the fight against HIV and AIDS. In this
regard, United Nations Agencies like UNAIDS play a critical role.
The project has received a grant of USD226,000 from the UNESCO/Japanese
Funds in Trust. It is executed through the Department of Secondary
Education’s Division of Management and Training of the Ministry of Education
of Botswana under the overall supervision of UNESCO Harare Cluster Office.
An amount of US$26,000 will be used by Harare Cluster Office for missions to
observe, evaluate and assess agreed actions undertaken in Botswana ; for
technical and administrative backstopping necessary for the successful
implementation of the project and for preparation of contractual
arrangements for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project
The Objectives of the project include the following:
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To
develop capacity in the management of HIV and AIDS in the secondary
schools;
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To
enable secondary school to develop monitoring tools and mechanisms which,
will provide a comprehensive and more systematic feedback from schools;
and
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To
institutionalised self-monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
These
objectives will be achieved through a series of activities, including the
following activities:
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Training of Core Management Team;
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Baseline Surveys;
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Production of Training Materials;
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Training Workshops for school personnel; and
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Monitoring and Evaluation
The following results are expected to be
achieved at the end of the project in December 2006
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Enhanced HIV and AIDS strategic management skills by core management team;
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Enhanced HIV/AIDS monitoring techniques at national and school level;
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Capacity developed in the design and adaptation of training manuals;
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Enhanced leadership skills by school management; and
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Enhanced project implementation through Monitoring and Evaluation.
2. Training of
Trainers in HIV/AIDS for Africa
The overall purpose of this project is
to establish under the leadership of Harare Cluster Office, a plan of
action, which aims to promote, coordinate and support individual and
collective efforts of member states to mitigating the impact of
HIV/AIDS in Africa through Education and Training. Principally the
project seeks to address the issue of HIV/AIDS and the needs of
Francophone and Lusophone countries.
This project also takes into consideration the support already
provided by the Japanese Funds in Trust project for the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) countries for an initiative
related to training on HIV/AIDS, which focuses entirely on Anglophone
countries in the region.
The value added of the proposed project
therefore is in its focus largely on the role of UNESCO to continue to
undertake training for trainers for Francophone and Lusophone
countries on HIV/AIDS, enabling them to provide guidance and
counselling to youth and thus preventing the spread of HIV infection
across Africa.
Furthermore the project seeks to establish a collective response and
capitalises on the investments already made by UNESCO.
Synergies and
collaboration with the SADC initiative managed by the UNESCO
International Institute for Educational planning will be established
in order to draw on the outcomes of a number of objectives which can
be usefully incorporated within this project and learning applied and
transferred elsewhere. Cooperation linkages will also be established
with the UNESCO Division for Basic education, UNESCO Division for the
promotion of Education Quality and UNESCO Field offices in Africa.
The main objective of the project is:
Expected outcomes include the following:
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Assessment of core competencies of the
trainers already trained in a number of key areas and follow up on
the number of training’s undertaken at country level.
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Identification of areas of training
needs in all sectors ( Education, Health, Youth etc) and at all
level of personnel, both governmental and non governmental.
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Training workshops for trainers in
each participating country in order to strengthen the existing
nucleus of national teams for the purposes of acquiring new
knowledge, developing teaching skills in attitudinal work, basic
skills in adult learning methods especially experiential learning,
sexuality and safer sex, death and dying, planning for the epidemic
and management and provision of education and treatment services.
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Increased number and quality of
HIV/AIDS trainers with reinforced knowledge and skills to prepare,
organise, conduct manage and evaluate national and regional training
programmes and courses.
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Review of training materials and
initiatives undertaken nationally to establish what works and
lessons learned.
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The creation of a database of trainers
and related areas of expertise and competency in the field of
HIV/AIDS.
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Development of an interagency
collaboration with relevant Ministries (National AIDS Control
Programmes) and UN agencies such as UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF for the
purposes of co-ordinating all actions.
Some of the main activities of the
project are:
a) Reinforce training and professional
development of Francophone and Lusophone trainers in HIV/AIDS through:
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Consolidating and enriching the
knowledge and skills already acquired by trainers so as to enhance
their capabilities to organise and undertake national training
courses for HIV/AIDS planning, education and prevention and
treatment, based on assessments of the level and competency of
trainers and assuring responsiveness to localised and regional
training needs.
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Strengthening the existing pool of
trainers in the participating countries by further provision of
intensive and specific training in HIV/AIDS.
b) Support the further development and
dissemination of suitable training materials for use in national
HIV/AIDS training programmes through:
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Collating and reviewing training
initiatives within Francophone and Lusophone, lessons learned and
identifying best practices.
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Conceptualise, design, develop and
evaluate training materials and resources.
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Development of an electronic network
and web site to facilitate cooperation between countries and
assuring transfer of the above know how more widely.
Linkages and partnerships:
The proposed project will build upon an existing regional and national
initiatives transferring know how and experience. At the international
level, cooperation will be sought from UNAIDS, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF
among others for the successful implementation of the project assuring
synergy with other actions being currently implemented.
A the country
level, UNESCO will ensure that appropriate mechanisms are set up to
enable a network to be established as part of any steering committees
involving the relevant agencies e.g. education health, information,
media, industry as well as NGO's working in the same field.
Budget
The project has received a grant of USD 200,000.96. for implementation
of the project activities, recruitment of a project coordinator and
monitoring and evaluation of the project.
An amount of US$15,400 will
be used for missions to observe, evaluate and assess agreed actions
undertaken within the participating countries and the overall project. Top |