Tomorrow Today

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Reaching young people with sexual and

reproductive health and HIV information

and services in Mozambique

Adolescent and Youth Programme in collaboration with the Mozambique Country Office, UNFPA

uch has been written on the topic of education as a

major driver of sustainable development. It is this criti-

cal link that has given genesis to initiatives such as

Education for All (EFA) and the UN Decade of Education for

Sustainable Development (DESD) among others. The importance

of education for sustainable development (ESD) is also reflected

in agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The education sector however, like other sectors, has not been

immune to the brunt of AIDS which hinders its contribution to

sustainable development and the MDGs.

The impact of the AIDS epidemic on the education sector may be

felt in at least three ways.

Firstly, AIDS impacts the supply of teach-

ers and other education sector professionals as a result of attrition

and absenteeism.

Secondly, AIDS impacts the demand for education

in terms of the total number of school-aged children as well as the

number of children enrolled and staying in school.

Finally, AIDS

impacts the quality of education in terms of reduced availability of

experienced teachers and the additional costs of maintaining the

educational system.

Conversely, education has also remained a key

tool for the prevention of HIV transmission.

UNFPA’s role in HIV prevention for young people

Young people remain at the centre of the AIDS epidemic in terms

of rates of infection, vulnerability, impact and potential for change.

They are disproportionately affected by the epidemic – young

people aged between 15 and 24 years account for 40 per cent of all

new infections.

As one of ten co-sponsors of UNAIDS, the United

Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) works to intensify and scale up

HIV prevention efforts through rights-based and evidence-informed

strategies, including attention to gender inequalities that exacerbate

the epidemic. Guided by its Framework for Action on Adolescents

and Youth (2007), UNFPA facilitates the provision of comprehen-

sive, gender-sensitive, life skills-based sexual and reproductive

health education, including HIV prevention, for young people both

in and out of school, as a means to sustainable development.

One key example of UNFPA’s leadership in HIV prevention for

young people comes fromMozambique, through Programme Geração

Biz. Started in 1999, Programme Geração Biz is an evaluated, multi-

sectoral initiative that effectively brings together the educational,

clinical and community components of HIV prevention program-

ming. It is a large-scale initiative that considers the complexity of HIV

prevention and reflects the critical roles that multi-sectoral collabora-

tion and youth leadership play in achieving results.

Mozambique country context

Mozambique faces a ‘generalized’ epidemic with an esti-

mated HIV prevalence of 12.5 per cent in adults aged

between 15 and 49, with a rate of 8 per cent in the north

of the country and approximately 21 per cent in the

southern provinces.

6,7

Catalysing factors for the increas-

ing prevalence in the southern areas of the country

include migration, limited access to health services,

inadequate coverage of HIV-related issues in commu-

nities, and growth in multiple concurrent relationships

and inter-generational sex.

8,9

Although there have been

large-scale condom distribution efforts, condom usage

still remains low.

Access to treatment is equally chal-

lenging, with antiretroviral treatment only reaching 24

per cent of those who needed it in 2007.

Young people aged 10-24 comprise roughly one third

of the country’s population. The HIV prevalence rate

amongst young people aged 15-24 years is 7.9 per cent,

but the rate amongst young women in this age group is

11.1 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent for their male

counterparts.

Prevalence rates begin to rise signifi-

cantly from the age of 15 years for both sexes. There are

two major groups among young people at risk of HIV

exposure. The group aged 10-14 years includes young

people who, if they are not educated about sexual and

reproductive health (SRH), may be vulnerable to HIV

infection when they become sexually active. The second

group is 15-24 year-olds and the emphasis within this

age group is on young women as they face higher risks

due to various issues like inter-generational sex and

gender disparities.

Programme Geração Biz background

The 1994 International Conference on Population and

Development resulted in an increased interest in adoles-

cent sexual and reproductive health issues and led to

the creation of the Inter-sectoral Committee for the

Development of Youth and Adolescents (CIADAJ) in

Mozambique. The Committee’s assessment concluded

that young people could not be treated as a homog-

enous group and that a multi-sectoral intervention

was 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