UNFPAUNFPA Annual Report 2001
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Education advocacy

UNFPA continued its advocacy efforts to ensure that HIV/AIDS and all other reproductive health priorities, as spelled out in the ICPD Programme of Action, are included in any new social development policies.

Advocacy for prevention gained focus with revised guidelines that reflect lessons learned in affecting policy change, building alliances, mobilizing resources and bringing about safer behaviour.

  • Teachers in Togo are integrating messages about HIV/AIDS and other STIs into formal education following training sessions in a programme that also produced a teacher’s guide and an activity book for students.


  • Sandrine Vivre Positif, a book of comic strips produced with UNFPA support, is raising awareness of HIV/AIDS among young people in Cameroon, where over 7 per cent of sexually active people are estimated to be HIV positive.


  • More than 15,000 young people marched in Burkina Faso on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2001, attracting the attention of policy makers to their message of individual and community responsibility with a youth declaration.


  • The Latin American Network in Adolescence and Sexual Education received support to introduce innovative education strategies for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, sexual violence and for gender equity and community participation in 17 countries.

  • Russian-speaking youth in Estonia attended performances of a play about the lives of eight teenage girls and participated in workshops after each show on gender roles, sexual and reproductive health and drug use.


  • In China, secondary school teachers and administrators in 15 counties participated in advocacy seminars designed to raise awareness about the need to educate young people about HIV/AIDS prevention and other reproductive health issues.


  • Awareness about HIV/AIDS in Benin was raised through radio and newspaper information campaigns, workshops and youth centres. Training for 85 peer educators focused on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and pregnancy.

   

With millions newly infected with HIV each year—5 million in 2001 —UNFPA is supporting intensified action to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/ AIDS. UNFPA produced an advocacy booklet on our approach to prevention in preparation for the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS.