Transcript SRHR and HIV&AIDS

CSTL /RHIVA Sharing Meeting 2014
Reducing HIV in Adolescents
Southern Sun O.R. Tambo - Johannesburg, South Africa
17-20 November 2014
Presentation Outline
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A description of RHIVA Project
Case of RHIVA in Zambia
Implementation Challenges
Opportunities/Emerging Issues
Key lessons learnt
Reducing HIV in Adolescents
• A school-based, HIV prevention programme,
conditional cash transfer to encourage positive
behaviour change among adolescents,
especially girls.
• Knowing status
• Positive healthy behaviour
• Career aspiration and planning
• Falls under CSTL health element
• Currently piloted in Mozambique, Namibia and
Zambia
RHIVA Goals and Objectives
Goals
• To reduce the number of HIV infections among adolescents in the
SADC Region
Objectives
• To incentivize adolescent students in Intervention 1 and 2 schools to
engage in healthy behaviours and make responsible lifestyle choices
• To increase knowledge and understanding of Intervention 2 learners
on HIV&AIDS/SRH, and on career development through
strengthened life skills curricula
• To increase awareness amongst parents and school communities
from Intervention 1 and 2 schools on the importance of supportive
and protective environments for adolescents
Programme Theory of Change
• When adolescents are:
• incentivized to engage in positive behaviours,
• equipped with knowledge and skills on SRH and HIV prevention,
• equipped with knowledge on career choices, sustainable livelihoods and financial
management,
• When parents and teachers are engaged in supporting adolescents in
responsible decision-making,
• Then adolescents will:
• believe that the future holds opportunities for them,
• have confidence in their own abilities,
• will make healthy lifestyle choices and display responsible behaviours,
THIS WILL REDUCE THEIR RISK OF CONTRACTING HIV.
RHIVA Intervention
• The intervention comprises of three cohorts:
• Control group: No intervention; assessed at baseline and end of
program
• Intervention 1: Conditional cash transfer programme; parent
workshops; periodic assessment of milestones; assessed at baseline
and end of program
• Intervention 2: Conditional cash transfer programme; strengthened
SRH and entrepreneurship curriculum; parent workshops; periodic
assessment of milestones; assessed at baseline and end of program
• 21 schools (7 per cohort); approximately 200 learners
per school = 2800 learners per country
A look at RHIVA in Practice: Zambia
Achievements
 RHIVA is being Implemented in 21 Secondary schools within Lusaka
Province
 More than 2,500 learners from 14 schools in Intervention Group 1
and Intervention Group 2
 Approximately 1, 300 now know their HIV status through an HIV test;
received cash voucher
 About 1,054 parents successfully engaged as key stakeholders of the
project implementation;
 26 of teachers successfully trained as core facilitators of the ‘My Life,
My Future’ programme in all intervention group 2 schools
Committed parents to RHIVA Programme
A look at RHIVA in Practice: Zambia
Achievements
 Successfully engaging 29 health centres in the provision of HCT
services to learners on the programme;
 Successfully conducted advocacy activities in all 21 schools through
orientation and briefing meetings;
 Strong collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of
Health and Stakeholders, committed to effective implementation of
the project in schools; shared goal to improve the health of young
people in Zambia.
Implementation Challenges
 Lack of real commitment by some parents, especially in
Low-density areas, to allow full participation in the project
implementation
 Lack of administrative costs in the day-to-day management
of project (activities-based budgets a sore);
 Inadequate funds that cannot even cater for teacher’s
entitlements such as transport refunds, lunch allowances
etc.
 OTHER CHALLENGES (?? MOZAMBIQUE? NAMIBIA?)
Opportunities/Emerging issues
 Opportunity: Existence of HCT services and youth friendly
services in all health centres in Zambia.
 Opportunity: The Ministry of Education embraces the
desire to reduce HIV among adolescents.
 Emerging issues: Differences in the reporting systems and,
above all, the tracking of RHIVA indicators through data
collection in health centres that have specific interests.
 Emerging issues: Lack of resources is quite an issues.
Key Lessons Learnt
 Forming partnerships with organization(s) that are specialized in
Mobile HCT service provision could have influenced objective data
collection on HIV status of learners
 One opportunity for RHIVA is the existence of HCT services and
youth friendly services in all health centres
 Engaging stakeholders and leveraging support for project goals can
accelerate the implementation of RHIVA significantly. However, this
has huge cost implications
 Advocacy is an ongoing and evolving process; but critical to
programme success
 OTHERS?
Comments and Questions from
the Floor & Other Panellists.