OneLove Regional Campaign - Southern Africa

Given the generalised nature of the epidemic across the region, the OneLove campaign aims to target the public at large. Secondary audiences include: couples, community leaders, religious leaders, traditional leaders, and policy makers.

A number of names and logo designs were tried and tested across the 9 countries and the OneLove name was the one that resonated consistently across all the countries. It reflects the aim of the campaign which is to encourage people to have one partner at a time. To date Tanzania, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho have adopted the OneLove name for their national MCP campaigns. In Zambia, Mozambique, and Namibia consultations are still underway. While OneLove is the name adopted by the majority of the partner countries for their national campaigns, different taglines (for example: Talk-Respect-Protect in South Africa) were found to work best in each country. These taglines aim to give local resonance, language, and idiom to the heart of the message: the need to talk about who and how we love and to protect and respect ourselves and the people we care about.

The campaign focuses on the following core message: Having multiple concurrent relationships puts you and your loved ones at risk of getting infected with HIV. A safe relationship means:

• there are no secrets and lies;
• communicating effectively with each other;
• challenging cultural practices that support MCP; and
• there is respect and equal rights for and between men and women.

The campaign strategy for the region combines mass media with social mobilisation, as two mutually reinforcing interventions which seek to impart knowledge, shift attitudes and social norms, and increase individual and community efficacy. The campaign also includes advocacy initiatives which aim to bring about healthy public policy and create an environment that facilitates social and behaviour change. This represents a dynamic integration of existing models of social and behaviour change – such as social learning theory, diffusion of innovation, and the stages of change model. Thus the intervention aims to impact on collective efficacy, social norms, interpersonal discussion, dialogue and debate as well as knowledge and awareness, attitudes, intentions, and individual behaviour.

The mass media radio and television education interventions will be based on edutainment. These will be complemented by print materials which reflect the characters from the radio and television dramas.

The campaign regional activities will take place in each of the 9 countries as follows:

• Regional radio PSAs (Public Service Announcements) flighted on regional radio vehicles, as well as national radio channels;
• Regional television PSAs;
• MCP billboards with harmonised messages simultaneously hosted in the 9 countries;
• Regional MCP poster campaign with posters displayed at all country border points;
• Regional print booklet distributed throughout all 9 countries to assist people in relationships to communicate and negotiate better; and
• Cross border taxi-bus and coach branding.

Running simultaneously with these regional activities, each of the 9 countries will develop the following national campaign products:

• MCP booklet;
• MCP radio drama series (45 episodes);
• MCP love story (film);
• MCP community outreach and social mobilisation activities with traditional and community leadership; and
• media advocacy around culture and MCP.

The Onelove Campaign has also developed a OneLove website which offers up to date information on campaign activities in each country, as well as information on MCPs, campaign resources, quizzes, and polls.

HIV and AIDS

MCP is understood to mean a situation where men or women have more than one sexual partner that can overlap for weeks, months or years. When an individual engages in sexual relationships with multiple partners they become part of a sexual network. Once someone in that network becomes infected with HIV it increases the likelihood of the infection spreading to everyone who is part of that network. The risk of HIV transmission in such sexual networks is even higher when it is considered that a person is highly infective up to approximately 6 weeks after being infected with HIV.

The campaign is based on a literature review and formative research into MCPs conducted across the region in 10 countries. The research found that many people across the countries were engaging in multiple and concurrent partner relationships. The reasons for the behaviour were often similar and included:

• a lack of effective communication between partners resulting in sexual and relationship dissatisfaction;
• cultural and social norms that encourage men to have more than one partner (seen as normal and acceptable) and discourage women from talking about their sexual needs, and from leaving an unsatisfactory relationship;
• poverty where people use sex for material gain; and
• alcohol which impairs people’s judgements and leads to unprotected sex.

In the research people also spoke of different kinds of MCPs: a steady partner and ‘another’ partner (big houses and small houses) as well as intergenerational transactional and polygamous relationships.

According to the OneLove campaign, key to the potential success of the regional MCP campaign is the collaboration with other stakeholders working in HIV and more broadly. Regional partners in the campaign include International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS), Regional African Network of AIDS Services Organisations (RAANGO), and Africa Broadcast Media Partnership (ABMP).

Each country also has campaign partners for the specific in-country campaigns.