Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Reaching young people with sexual andreproductive health and HIV informationand services in MozambiqueAdolescent and Youth Programme in collaboration with the Mozambique Country Office, UNFPAMuch has been written on the topic of education as amajor driver of sustainable development. It is thiscritical link that has given genesis to initiatives suchas Education for All (EFA) and the UN Decade of Educationfor Sustainable Development (DESD) among others. The importanceof education for sustainable development (ESD) is alsoreflected in agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). The education sector however, like other sectors, hasnot been immune to the brunt of AIDS which hinders its contributionto sustainable development and the MDGs.The impact of the AIDS epidemic on the education sector may befelt in at least three ways. 1 Firstly, AIDS impacts the supply of teachersand other education sector professionals as a result of attritionand absenteeism. 2 Secondly, AIDS impacts the demand for educationin terms of the total number of school-aged children as well as thenumber of children enrolled and staying in school. 3 Finally, AIDSimpacts the quality of education in terms of reduced availability ofexperienced teachers and the additional costs of maintaining theeducational system. 4 Conversely, education has also remained a keytool for the prevention of HIV transmission.UNFPA’s role in HIV prevention for young peopleYoung people remain at the centre of the AIDS epidemic in termsof rates of infection, vulnerability, impact and potential for change.They are disproportionately affected by the epidemic – youngpeople aged between 15 and 24 years account for 40 per cent of allnew infections. 5 As one of ten co-sponsors of UNAIDS, the UnitedNations Population Fund (UNFPA) works to intensify and scale upHIV prevention efforts through rights-based and evidence-informedstrategies, including attention to gender inequalities that exacerbatethe epidemic. Guided by its Framework for Action on Adolescentsand Youth (2007), UNFPA facilitates the provision of comprehensive,gender-sensitive, life skills-based sexual and reproductivehealth education, including HIV prevention, for young people bothin and out of school, as a means to sustainable development.One key example of UNFPA’s leadership in HIV prevention foryoung people comes from Mozambique, through Programme GeraçãoBiz. Started in 1999, Programme Geração Biz is an evaluated, multisectoralinitiative that effectively brings together the educational,clinical and community components of HIV prevention programming.It is a large-scale initiative that considers the complexity of HIVprevention and reflects the critical roles that multi-sectoral collaborationand youth leadership play in achieving results.Mozambique country contextMozambique faces a ‘generalized’ epidemic with an estimatedHIV prevalence of 12.5 per cent in adults agedbetween 15 and 49, with a rate of 8 per cent in the northof the country and approximately 21 per cent in thesouthern provinces. 6,7 Catalysing factors for the increasingprevalence in the southern areas of the countryinclude migration, limited access to health services,inadequate coverage of HIV-related issues in communities,and growth in multiple concurrent relationshipsand inter-generational sex. 8,9 Although there have beenlarge-scale condom distribution efforts, condom usagestill remains low. 10 Access to treatment is equally challenging,with antiretroviral treatment only reaching 24per cent of those who needed it in 2007. 11Young people aged 10-24 comprise roughly one thirdof the country’s population. The HIV prevalence rateamongst young people aged 15-24 years is 7.9 per cent,but the rate amongst young women in this age group is11.1 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent for their malecounterparts. 12 Prevalence rates begin to rise significantlyfrom the age of 15 years for both sexes. There aretwo major groups among young people at risk of HIVexposure. The group aged 10-14 years includes youngpeople who, if they are not educated about sexual andreproductive health (SRH), may be vulnerable to HIVinfection when they become sexually active. The secondgroup is 15-24 year-olds and the emphasis within thisage group is on young women as they face higher risksdue to various issues like inter-generational sex andgender disparities.Programme Geração Biz backgroundThe 1994 International Conference on Population andDevelopment resulted in an increased interest in adolescentsexual and reproductive health issues and led tothe creation of the Inter-sectoral Committee for theDevelopment of Youth and Adolescents (CIADAJ) inMozambique. The Committee’s assessment concludedthat young people could not be treated as a homogenousgroup and that a multi-sectoral interventionwas the best way to address their varied needs at scale.Programme Geração Biz emerged in 1999 from CIADAJ,with funding from UNFPA and Danida (Danish[ 54 ]