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• To provide information, education and counselling
to young people in schools and communities to
improve knowledge, skills, behaviour and practices
with respect to SRH
• To ensure quality youth-friendly health services are
accessible to youth in schools and the community
• To strengthen the capacity of ministerial agencies
and their civil society partners to plan, implement
and monitor activities
• To strengthen multi-sectoral coordination
• To ensure gender recognition and promote gender
equality as a fundamental component of all activities.
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Themes of the programme
There are four strategic themes that aim to guide all
programme activities.
15
These are:
•
Multi-sectoral strategy
: Programme activities imple-
mented by all three sectors, (education, youth and
sports, and health) from the central to the community
level, based on the understanding that young people
are a heterogeneous group, needing not only informa-
tion but also services
•
Institutional capacity-building
: Developing skills,
instruments, infrastructure and systems to build the
institutional capacity for information provision and
service delivery by and for young people
•
Advocacy
: Advocating for the rights and needs of
young people at all levels, from the national level to
grassroots advocacy activities of peer educators
•
Service provision
: Dissemination of knowledge and
skills supported by services for young people.
The three components of Programme Geração Biz are
school, community and clinical services.
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The school component
provides a platform to reach
young people in formal education. Activities include
lectures during classes, at break time, after school and in
youth corners, all run by volunteer peer educators and
supported by teachers. These activities educate young
people about sexual and reproductive health, includ-
ing HIV prevention, using various behaviour change
communication (BCC) materials. While lectures,
group discussions and theatre are undertaken as group
activities, youth-friendly corners are used for individual
counselling. At the end of 2007, a policy was approved
ensuring space and free enrolment for all Programme
Geração Biz peer educators in schools that maintain a
high standard of performance. This policy improves
retention of educators, reduces costs to families, and
increases the probability of girls staying in school.
At the end of 2009, the school component was being
implemented in approximately 624 schools in all prov-
inces of Mozambique. There were 3,709 peer educators
at the centre of implementing activities in the schools
and 1,098,516 young people have been reached through
this component since the programme’s inception.
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The community component
: With a national literacy rate
of 47.8 per cent, many young people are not part of the
formal education system in Mozambique, making the
Development Agency), and technical support from Pathfinder
International. The programme began as a pilot in two provinces
– Maputo City and Zambezia – but now covers all 11 provinces
in the country.
What is the programme?
‘Geração Biz’ means ‘dynamic and energetic generation’ – a name
chosen for the programme by young people themselves to reflect a
generation actively involved in finding solutions to their problems.
It has been described by some young people as a philosophy of life
inspiring them to be active and dynamic.
Programme Geração Biz aims to address young Mozambicans’ need
for knowledge and skills related to sexual and reproductive health and
HIV prevention and treatment. The programme, which also aims to
promote gender awareness, reduce incidence of unintended pregnan-
cies and unsafe abortion, and reduce vulnerability to STIs, including
HIV, represents an important contribution to the social dimension of
sustainable development.
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Since its inception, Programme Geração
Biz has reached more than four million young people, both in and out
of school, with seven thousand peer educators present in the schools
and communities.
The core objectives of the programme are:
• To promote an enabling environment for informing, educating,
changing behaviour and providing services to young people
through public policy and information at community, provincial
and national levels
Map of Mozambique
Source: United Nations.
(The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map
do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations)