Le SIDA Parlons-En (Talking about AIDS)

This French-language HIV/AIDS message development guide, entitled Talking about AIDS, is designed to help those working in Francophone Africa prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Seventy communication experts from twelve French-speaking African nations constructed this 114-page primer to foster the crafting of messages to prevent HIV/AIDS infection and to address care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The guide includes detailed exploration of messages for eleven specific audiences: young people, truck drivers, migrant workers, soldiers, people living with HIV/AIDS, journalists, political leaders, religious leaders, health workers, communities, and commercial sex workers.

Each chapter of the guide is devoted to a specific audience and includes a brief overview of the characteristics of each group; the goal is to provide insights to assist readers in tailoring more effective messages. After the overview, each chapter lists the desired behaviour change, barriers to reaching that audience, possible message content or idea, and supporting arguments for those possible ideas.
This guide does not provide actual message or slogans, since those messages need to be designed with the specific culture and situation in mind. Forty thousand copies of the guide are available in French and an English translation is planned.