The OPEC Fund

for International Development

OPEC Fund HIV/AIDS Special Account

OPEC Fund / United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO)

Project on

Reducing the Impact

of the HIV/AIDS Crisis

in and through Education

April 2004

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Project summary

OPEC Fund / United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) Project on Strengthening Education Sector Responses to Prevent HIV/AIDS

Background

Introduction

Regional vulnerability and diversity

The UNESCO – UNAIDS initiative on HIV prevention education

The need for partnership and coordination

The need for a generic program

Division of labour – orchestrated action

The Project

Goal:

Objectives:

Project components and activities

1. Consolidate knowledge on what works and develop evidence-based advocacy materials for ministries, schools and other actors in education systems

2.Strengthen national and local capacity of key actors in the education sector, including in the areas of strategic planning, curriculum development, teacher training and monitoring and evaluation

3.Expand prevention education against HIV/AIDS through the Media

4.Strengthen tools for international monitoring and response for HIV/AIDS impact on education, through a UNAIDS interagency mechanism

5.Scale up HIV/AIDS prevention education across schools in 12 countries in Asia and the Arab States

Project Implementation Strategy

Responsibility:

OPEC Fund/UNESCO Partnership

OPEC Fund

UNESCO

Project Justification

Annex I.Global and country-level actions Background information

Annex II.Budget

Total

Project summary

Project:OPEC Fund/United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) Partnership on Strengthening Education Sector Responses to Prevent HIV/AIDS in selected countries of Asia and the ArabStates

Region:Asia and the ArabStates[1] , with global support

Beneficiary sub-regions

and countries:Central Asia: Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

South-East Asia:Cambodia, Viet Nam, Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Lao PDR

Arab States: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon

Sector:Education

Project total cost:US$4,540,000

OPEC Fund Contribution:US$2,270,000

UNESCO Contribution:US$2,270,000

Executing agency:UNESCO /International Institute for Educational Planning (working with national commissions of UNESCO and Ministries of Education)

Period of implementation:January 2005 – December 2006

OPEC Fund / United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) Project on Strengthening Education Sector Responses to Prevent HIV/AIDS

Background

Introduction

HIV/AIDS will likely kill more people this decade than all the wars and disasters of the past 50 years. Since the AIDS pandemic began in the 1980s, 25 million people have died and more than 40 million are now living with HIV/AIDS. In 2003 alone, some three million people died and over five million became infected, worldwide (UNAIDS 2004).

Epidemic diseases are not new, but what sets HIV/AIDS apart is its unprecedented negative impact on the social and economic development of nations. The HIV/AIDS epidemic can affect rich or poor, young or old, but it is people in developing countries (where an estimated 95% of people living with HIV/AIDS [PLWHA] live) who are most vulnerable. The majority are young adults in the prime of their working and parenting lives. Their legacy is a decimated workforce, fractured and impoverished communities and millions of orphans.

Although Africa is the region that has been hardest hit by the epidemic, nearly 20% of the people now living with HIV/AIDS in the world are from the Asia/Pacific region. HIV/AIDS was late in coming to this area, and the situation is now rapidly changing for the worse. There are over seven million people estimated to be living with the virus in the Asia/Pacific region, and whilst this figure is a relatively small percentage of the overall population, it disguises a very high rate of increase in the prevalence of the infection. In 2003, the region suffered the second highest rate of new infections in the world, with between 750,000 and 1.37 million people becoming HIV-positive. The apparently low national prevalence rates in many countries in the region are therefore dangerously deceptive and there is a serious threat of major generalized epidemics.

In the Arab States, despite the relatively slow rate of spread of the epidemic, a steady yearly increase in the number of reported cases is observed. To date, there is an estimated 550,000 HIV and AIDS cases in the Arab States region compared to around 400,000 people in the year 2000. While these figures are relatively low, constituting around 1.2% of the total cases worldwide, low prevalence does not equate to low risk or low priority. Experience elsewhere (Brazil, Senegal, and Uganda, to name three) has demonstrated that energetic and early action is effective in limiting the spread of an epidemic whose capacity for expansion in low-prevalence areas is difficult to predict.

Regional vulnerability and diversity

Asia/Pacific is a region of extraordinary diversity in geography, climate, population distribution, cultural heritage, historical traditions, levels of economic and social development and the availability of natural resources. But it is also a region of tremendous vulnerability and is home to two-thirds of the world’s population, with roughly one-third existing below the poverty line (on incomes of less than US$1 per day). Sixty percent of the world’s natural disasters also occur in the region.

In the Arab States, the epidemic shows diverse and complex trends and patterns. Thepattern of a generalized epidemic (more than 1 % of the population is infected) is observed in the countries of the Horn of Africa, which share poverty, displacement and refugees, high political instability and weak health infrastructures. Since some of the worst HIV/AIDS epidemics are in countries with high illiteracy rates, the overall illiteracy rate of more than 40 % in the Arab region is an especially worrying feature.

Clearly, there are many barriers to the implementation of successful HIV/AIDS programs in both the ArabStates and the Asia/Pacific region. Lack of access to health delivery services; limited or no provision of sex education within school curricula; limited access to user-friendly information; and lack of education and communication materials are all issues that need to be addressed. In addition, high rates of ignorance about HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, seasonal migration, the practice of injecting drug use, and unsafe sexual practices are important factors that contribute to the acceleration of transmission of the virus. Factors of vulnerability vary in sub-regions:

Central Asia: After gaining independence from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Central Asia has been in a flux. Migration, uneven economic development and political turmoil, with their negative side effects of growth in drug trade and abuse and sex work, have created a situation in which the HIV epidemic can thrive. Indeed, while the average HIV rate in the general population is lower than 0.2%, severe localized epidemics in drug users have been reported – which indicated the start of major epidemics in Southeast Asia in the 1980s.

South-East Asia: After more than a decade of explosive economic growth, the economies of South-East Asia crashed in 1997, throwing millions, who had gained some measure of prosperity, back into poverty. The sub-region is now rapidly recovering, but the slump has only further highlighted the great disparities in wealth among its countries. For most people in the poorest of these countries, life will continue to be dominated by poverty, fragile human rights, poor health services and a high vulnerability to disaster.

An estimated three million people in South-East Asia are now reported to be living with HIV/AIDS. The continuing rise in the number of those infected and the shift of new infections from so-called ‘marginalized populations’ into the general population is of major concern, and poses a tremendous threat to the economic development of the sub-region.

The Arab States: In the Arab States, the HIV epidemic has gained a foothold in so-called marginalized populations: drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and migrant populations. In other countries, booming epidemics in these groups, combined with poverty and inequality, were the first stage before the epidemic spread to the general population. It is therefore of importance that current low prevalence rates are not interpreted as a reason to do nothing about HIV in the Middle Eastern region.

The UNESCO – UNAIDS initiative on HIV prevention education

The OPEC Fund/UNESCO Project on Reducing the Impact of the HIV/AIDS Crisis in and through Education will seek to deliver joint Fund/UNESCO assistance to all three sub-regions, and thus buttress ongoing efforts to strengthen education sector responses focusing on HIV prevention at the country level, as currently spearheaded by the joint UNESCO-UNAIDS Global Initiative. This section outlines what the Global Initiative is about, and how this project will be an integral component of it.

The need for partnership and coordination

All UN Cosponsors and many international NGOs have projects that address different aspects of HIV prevention education. Often they deal with the same issues, cater to the same donors and invest in the same countries – indeed, there are examples where agencies are duplicating projects or activities. There is lack of coherence and consistency – duplication in some areas may go along with gaps in others – and there is also dissipation where resources are spent before reaching those most in need. The closer to the ground, the less is left.

Hence it is necessary to think not of projects but of programs – and joint programs rather than separate ones. They have to be integrated into national plans, and they have to put into effect. Although much good work is being done, the epidemic is still keeping ahead of efforts to control it. Current action will not enable us to reach the goals of the UNGASS 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. Indeed, we are already falling behind, e.g. “to reduce by 2005 HIV prevalence among young men and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries by 25%”.

The need for a generic program

All countries and communities are different – yet most of the problems they face are similar: silence, shame and discrimination, poor curricula, teachers embarrassed to address issues related to reproductive health, drugs and sex, children dropping out of school, orphans forced into adult responsibilities without resources or preparation, inadequate planning for hard hit education systems, etc. Even though many initiatives address each of these problems, there is no overall program that can mobilize diverse actors and join them in a comprehensive program – and none that links to the new “3 X 5” initiative.

What is needed is a generic program in HIV/AIDS prevention education that is simple andstandardized, yet comprehensive and sensitive to the particulars of each country and applicable and adaptable to each community. It has to be protective of individuals and supportive of institutions – and well integrated with the “3 X 5” treatment initiative. Such a program must provide a template for decision-making and well considered policy options on issues such as:

  • Curricula for different age levels and for different levels of previous preparation.
  • Teacher training modules to enhance knowledge, motivation and the capacity of teachers to serve as role models in including children affected by AIDS.
  • HIV/AIDS workplace policies for the Ministry of Education, schools as well as other institutions.
  • Education finance mechanisms to guarantee the rights of education to orphans and vulnerable children as an integral part of Education for All.
  • Flexible alternatives to formal education timetables, calendars and curricula so that affected children can benefit from education otherwise inaccessible.
  • Schools as sanctuaries for children – not places of risk, abuse and exploitation but of learning, growth and care.
  • Schools as learning and resource centers for the community in cooperation with other community organizations, to build awareness, to provide prevention education, to promote attitudes of care and compassion, to initiate campaigns for reducing discrimination, information and skills for exposed groups, and to foster practical abilities to make a living.
  • Increased planning and management capacity to deal with the impacts of the epidemic on the demand, supply and quality of education.

All such and similar requirements to address the epidemic will be basic parts of a generic ‘tool kit’ of responses that is needed, and that can be put to immediate use and adapted to any country or community.

Division of labour – orchestrated action

Each agency has specific know-how and capabilities to carry out part of the tasks needed for a comprehensive education sector response. The comparative advantage of each agency is best mobilized in concerted action with the others. In the field of education, important initial work has been done under the auspices of the Interagency Task Team on HIV/AIDS and Education.[2] This group can also be an important contributor for ensuring cooperation in carrying the initiative forward.

Interagency cooperation is not enough. There must obviously be close cooperation with national governments, civil society and its organizations as well as the private sector. Prevention education programs must be integrated into the work of Ministries and clearly linked to other ongoing initiatives, such as Education for All (EFA), Fast Track Initiatives, poverty reduction strategies, etc.

UNESCO, through its specialized institutions, its field offices and National Commissions, will work closely with Ministries of Education, with the OPEC Fund and with the other UNAIDS Cosponsors to build capacity and scale up responses in HIV prevention education in ways that are facilitated by and in turn reinforce the effects of the initiatives already taken on treatment, food security, orphans and workplace issues.

The Project

Goal:

The overall goal of this project is to prevent HIV/AIDS infection among young people, in and out of school, by helping 3 Arab countries and 9 countries in the Asia-Pacific region improve prevention education programmes.

Objectives:

There will be five main objectives and related fields of action, at both national and international levels:

  1. Consolidate knowledge on what works and develop evidence-based advocacy materials for ministries, schools and other actors in education systems
  2. Strengthen national and local capacity of key actors in the education sector, including in the areas of strategic planning, curriculum development, teacher training and monitoring and evaluation
  3. Expand prevention education against HIV/AIDS through the media
  4. Strengthen tools for international monitoring and response for HIV/AIDS impact on education, through a UNAIDS interagency mechanism
  5. Scale up HIV/AIDS prevention education in schools

Twelve will be targeted: Cambodia, Viet Nam, Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Lao PDR (South, East and Southeast Asia), Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (Central Asia) and Syria, Jordan and Lebanon (Arab States). UNESCO has an on-the-ground presence and on-going experience working in these countries. Work in Kazakhstan, Thailand and China will be carried out exclusively with UNESCO funding, and others will be in partnership with OPEC fund. Implementation will take place starting in January 2005, and will be completed by the end of December 2006.The proposal has been developed as an interdisciplinary, intersectoral effort. Implementation within UNESCO will be carried out on the same basis.

In the context of UNESCO’s mandate and its role as a UNAIDS cosponsor, the UNESCO-OPEC special initiative will establish partnerships with ministries and civil society organizations, and work through a broad network of actors including other UNAIDS partners.

Project components and activities

1. Consolidate knowledge on what works and develop evidence-based advocacy materials for ministries, schools and other actors in education systems
Rationale:

It takes targeted advocacy to senior policy makers to make them realize the potential of the education sector in enabling a strong prevention education response, and in decreasing stigma and discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS in the community. There is a need to show senior policy makers effective possible ways forward. Therefore we will continue to expand our knowledge of what works and lessons learned concerning effective preventive education responses at the local, national and regional levels. It is clear, for example, that simply providing information about HIV/AIDS and raising awareness, while important, will not on its own be sufficient to change behaviours and prevent the further spread of the epidemic. Urgently needed are strategies for improving quality education in relation to HIV/AIDS, with consideration for seeking out learners, acknowledging what the learner brings, relevant content, a learning process based on rights and equity, a supportive learning environment, and appropriate policies, administration and resources.