MDG-6: Combat HiV/aiDs, Malaria and other ... - mdgnet.undg.org

MDG-6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and OtherDiseasesMDG target 6.C: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and othermajor diseasesConstraint:Weak Partnership for Coordinated Health Reponses to Address Sexual and ReproductiveHealth and HIV/AIDS PreventionLimited coordination, partnerships and networking among the peer education initiatives foryouthYouth Peer Education Network, Y-PEER has worked since 2001 with country partners globally tobuild the capacity of national non-governmental organizations and governments to design, implement,supervise, monitor, and evaluate peer education programmes to prevent HIV and improve the sexualand reproductive health (SRH) of youth.Components:• Establish a cadre of national and regional certified trainers of trainers in peer education;• Set minimum standards for peer education programmes;• Network to share experiences and knowledge to achieve results;• Develop, adapt and disseminate of tools and resources for peer education programmes;• Establish mechanisms for full youth involvement in the governance, management, coordination,strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of activities;• Use the concept of entertainment-education (edutainment) to mobilize youth and reach youngaudiences through innovative approaches;• Identify and develop the capacity of regional institutions to provide support and ensure long-termsustainability.Results:• More than 700 young people, NGOs members and governmental institutions trained using theY-PEER methodology; they represent the pool of master trainers available in the countries tosupport the national peer education programmes.• Through national training events, Y-PEERs have built a cadre of 15,000 youth peer educators.• Common sets of standards for peer education were developed and are adapted and used inmore than 20 countries and translated into 11 languages. More than 13,000 copies have beendistributed to local organizations and peer programmes.• National Y-PEER networks exist in 40 countries, stimulating the open exchange of informationand ideas on topics related to Sexual and Reproductive Health, prevention of STIs and HIV.• As of 2009, Y-PEER reached 20 million young people through a variety of activities during which10 million condoms and 4 million IEC (Information, Education and Communication) materialswere distributed.• The Peer Education Toolkit was developed, translated into 22 languages, and is used in 63countries worldwide within the peer education programmes as well as by the national educationsystems and teacher training.• Through the Y-PEER fellowship programme, 50 young people were directly involved in theplanning, implementation and M&E of the initiative.• Local and regional celebrities (actors, singers, journalists) involved in network activities asambassadors, working to promote health and prevent disease among young people.• Two regional institutions (National Centre for Public Health Protection under the Ministryof Health in Bulgaria; and the American University of Beirut, Lebanon) host Y-PEER PeerEducation Training and Research Institutes (PETRI) and serve as ‘one-stop-shops’ for technicalassistance for peer education programmes working in various settings.Key Elements of Success:• Active and broad youth participation and effective youth-adult partnership.• Unified curricula, tools and resources used across the programme and national networks.

• Collaboration and partnerships with individual experts, organizations, private sector, popularindividuals, other existing networks, and parliamentarians.• Feeling of ownership by youth network members.• Partnership with regional institutions to assume a major role as supporters in the process ofensuring sustainability of the network.• Establishment of credible and innovative partnerships with institutions and agencies that sharea commitment to empowering young people by providing platforms to articulate their needs andambitions, facilitates motivation among network members.Lessons Learned:• Youth fellows greatly contribute to the progress of national Y-PEER networks, especially withrespect to governance and coordination• Reinforcing the training methodology and a system of graduation and advancement within theprogramme are good mechanisms to counter the high attrition rate among trainees.• Innovative approaches closely linked with the youth culture and trends should be used formobilizing and reaching young people, especially young boys.• A regionally based support entity is an effective mechanism to provide support to the network.• Effective, transparent and accountable governance is important sustainability factor of anynetwork.• The process of adoption and implementation of standards in peer education is complex andlengthy and requires broad stakeholder involvement.• Monitoring and evaluation of the skills of youth network members must be part of strategiccapacity development plans.• Adaptation and translation of tools and training into national languages ensures broaderrepresentation of youth from the local communities.Background Information:Y-PEER, the Youth Peer Education Network, is a groundbreaking and comprehensive youth-to-youthinitiative pioneered by UNFPA. Y-PEER is a network of more than 700 NGOs and governmentalinstitutions; its membership includes 7,000 youth from 40 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia,the Middle East, North and East Africa and was recently initiated in Asia and Pacific and LatinAmerica.With the youth-adult partnership and strategic communication for behaviour change and developmentat its core, Y-PEER sets standards, develops and disseminates training techniques and tools, connectspeople within and between countries, and mobilizes youth by using innovative partnerships andmodern media to involve and motivate them in their communities.Y-PEER is based on person-to-person meetings and connects its members through electroniccommunication tools. It provides training events, campaigns, workshops, and video conferences andproduces tools related to peer education, youth-adult partnerships, ‘edutainment’, and youth advocacy.Implementation Partners:UNFPA (Regional, Sub-regional, and Country Offices); Y-PEER members; more than 600 localNGOs, UNAIDS; UNICEF; MTV; National Centre for Public Health Protection, Bulgaria; AmericanUniversity of Beirut; Dance4Life; SOA AIDS Netherlands; NiteStar Theater Programme; Family HealthInternational.Contacts:Marija Vasileva-BlazevUNFPA Regional Office, Eastern Europe and Central Asia220E 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017Phone: +1212-297-2703Email: vasileva-blazev@unfpa.org