O Icheke National Campaign Plan - CONCURRENT SEXUAL ...

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National Campaign Plan: Multiple Concurrent Partnerships83.3 Strategic Priorities: Underlying Causes of MCPThe evidence base gathered during the development of the campaign plan pointed to a number of structuralor societal factors that the campaign could focus on in order to reduce MCP, including taboos about sexin the public and private spheres, gender inequality, gender and relationship norms, lack of parent-childcommunication, mobility and physical separation from primary partners, consumerism and alcohol abuse.At the individual level data analysis also presented a variety of options for targeting behavioural drivers ofMCP, including lack of knowledge about concurrency and HIV risk, lack of peer social support for sticking toone partner and lack of self-efficacy to resist other partners. For men, beliefs and attitudes about multiplepartners and the belief that multiple partners are no problem if condoms are used could be targeted. Forwomen, alcohol abuse and lack of power to decide when one has sex could be addressed, while positive socialnorms about the undesirability of multiple partners could also be leveraged. In selecting target drivers of andbarriers to behaviour change to focus on during the campaign, the feasibility of changing different underlyingcauses of MCP through communications was considered. In analysing cultural drivers of MCP, effort wasfocussed on honing in on specific cultural factors that could be addressed through communications, ratherthan considering ‘culture’ as a single, daunting challenge.3.3.1 Young Women Engaged in MCP for Personal or Material GainEfforts to reduce the number of young women who actively engage in MCP for material gain or personaladvancement will focus on the following key drivers of MCP:(i) Knowledge that overlapping sexual relationships are more risky. The basic fact that concurrentrelationships increase the risks of HIV transmission will be a focus during the initial phase of thecampaign. Current knowledge levels among this target group are very low: in the PSI 2007 studyjust 19% were able to identify concurrent or overlapping relationships as being higher risk than nonconcurrentrelationships with a break in between.(ii) Consumerism and personal / material aspirations. This is the key societal driver of women’sdesire to engage in cross-generational partnerships. Related to materialism is young women’s beliefin their ability to resist the temptation to have other partners because of the materialbenefits they bring and a lack of peer support for primary partnerships. Young women’s lack of selfefficacy to resist engaging in MCP for material gain is often driven by stressful peer friendships basedon competition and affirmation around material goods. A focus of the campaign will thus be to shiftthe dynamic of young women’s friendships from competing to supporting each other in resisting thetemptation of engaging in MCP for material benefit.(iii) Future desirability as wives and mothers. Many young women do have aspirationsof future long term, stable relationships and marriage, but women who are ‘used up’ by older menare considered ‘finished’ and not desirable primary partners for men in their late 20s and 30s.The campaign will seek to use this conflict to show young women how engaging in MCP now can ruintheir future dreams.
National Campaign Plan: Multiple Concurrent Partnerships93.3.2 Men Engaged in MCP for Sexual VarietyCommunications designed for this target group will focus on the following underlying causes of MCP:(i) Knowledge that overlapping sexual relationships are more risky. Current knowledge levels amongthis target group are even lower than among young women: just 14% of men aged 25-34 in the PSI2007 study were able to identify concurrent or overlapping relationships as being higher risk than nonconcurrentrelationships with a break in between.(ii) Norms about gender and sexual behaviour. Concepts about masculinity, particularly malemalenorms, are a key societal driver of MCP: the more women a man has or can provide for, themore of a man he is. These concepts of masculinity are about how men rank themselves and eachother, and not about how women define what is desirable in a man. Therefore, the lack of peer socialsupport to have only one sexual partner will also be addressed because male bonding typically involvescompeting to have more partners.(iii) Lack of communication about sex within relationships. This is another key underlyingcause of MCP: because men lack the ability (more often than the motivation) to discuss sexual andrelationship problems with a primary partner, they find it easier to simply look for more or bettersex with somebody else. This is compounded by norms about gender and relationships inwhich women’s sexual fidelity is prized, expected and enforced by men, but neither men nor womenexpect a man to stick to one sexual partner, as well as by attitudes towards sex that de-link sexfrom relationships, emotional commitment and love.(iv) Men’s beliefs about all the benefits of having multiple partners and about their abilityto resist temptation to have other partners are linked to each other and to the abovedrivers of MCP. Greater knowledge about concurrency and HIV risk would affect men’s weighing of thebenefits and risks of MCP. Ability to resist temptation to have other partners relates to self image, peerpressure, inability to resolve problems with a primary partner and the ease of emotionally separating sexwith another partner from a primary relationship.The belief that having multiple partners is no problem if condoms are used will not be explicitly targetedby this campaign. Mixing partner reduction and condoms in the same message risks being confusing, if notcounterproductive. However, it is essential that this driver of MCP is addressed through careful, responsiblemessaging in all condom promotion programmes that does not undermine efforts to reduce MCP. This meansthat campaigns to promote condom use should avoid promoting condoms for use in multiple or casualrelationships or presenting condoms as a more attractive or feasible HIV prevention option than partnerreduction.3.3.3 Cross-Generational Sexual PartnershipsEfforts to reduce the phenomenon of cross-generational MCP characterised by culturally undesirabledifferences in age will focus on making it socially unacceptable for older men to take advantage of their statusand relative wealth to pressurise young girls to have sex with them, and on empowering girls to say no orwalk away from unwanted partnerships with older men.
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O Icheke National Campaign Plan - CONCURRENT SEXUAL ...

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