Mainstreaming HIV in Education

"Education and HIV & AIDS are inextricably linked. On the one hand, the chances of achieving crucial education goals set by the international community are severely threatened by HIV and AIDS. On the other hand, global commitments to strategies, policies and programmes that reduce the vulnerability of children and young people to HIV will not be met without the full contribution of the education sector."

Advanced by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)' Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT), this 2-page advocacy briefing note presents the framework of a sector-wide approach that mainstreams HIV and AIDS into existing education sector programmes. The current challenge, according to IATT, is that HIV/AIDS continues to be seen predominantly as a health issue, rather than a priority to be mainstreamed into overarching educational plans (such as Education For All - EFA). Likewise, education has not been consistently considered in HIV and AIDS policy, plans, and funding mechanisms.

Although frequently denied or ignored, the linkages that IATT identifies between HIV/AIDS and education can and should be fortified. To this end, the document highlights the importance of attention to:

• Context: Because the character and state of the epidemic differs between countries, IATT claims, social, economic, cultural, and political factors must guide the strategic response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in each given country - e.g., through locally specific curriculum content on HIV prevention.
• Harmonisation: Country and education sector plans, as well as strategies for combating poverty and for addressing HIV and AIDS, must constitute the basis for all HIV and AIDS interventions in education. Aligning efforts facilitates common arrangements, simplifies procedures, and reduces transaction costs.
• Comprehensiveness: The approach to HIV and AIDS in education endorsed here involves promoting and protecting human rights by fostering a better understanding of factors that put people at risk of HIV and that drive stigma and discrimination, of gender and equity issues, of sexual and reproductive health and rights, of school/community linkages, and of the special education needs of children affected by HIV and AIDS. Involving people living with HIV and AIDS in educational approaches helps ensure that due attention is given to prevention, care, support (including access to treatment), workplace issues, and management of the response.
• Collaboration and coordinated sector programme support: Governments, development agencies, and education section partners all have roles to play in ensuring that advocacy and leadership are part and parcel of approaches to HIV and AIDS, that every effort is made to coordinate actions on the ground, and that environments are truly supportive of emerging leaders - especially those within new and less traditional realms (e.g., the business community, religious leaders, and people in the entertainment industry).

The document concludes with 7 key questions, and a list of 4 resources providing an overview of IATT activity in this area.