Lemisa E, Chalowandya M, Mawoneke S, Decosas J; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 2000 Jul 9-14; 13: abstract no. ThPeD5720.

E. Lemisa, Southern African AIDS Training Programme, Box 30630, Lusaka, Zambia, Tel.: +260 1 226 026, Fax: +260 1 226 026, E-mail: elemisa@zamnet.zm

Issue: Peer education is widely accepted as a proven approach to prevention of HIV infection among young people. There are many youth peer education programmes throughout the world and there is a large volume of methodological and descriptive literature on their content and style. However, there is very little documentation of management aspects of these type of programmes. To assure that a youth peer education programme reaches its stated objectives, organisational and management issues are at least as important as the content of educational messages and the style of delivery. Description: The Southern African AIDS Training (SAT) Programme has provided technical and financial support to the Anti-AIDS Project in Zambia since 1992. The project was one of the first documented peer education programmes for young people in school in Africa and attracted world-wide attention. It rapidly grew to a total membership of 60,000 administered by a central office in Lusaka with 17 full-time staff. A review of the project in 1995 found, that centrally administered nation-wide programming was not an effective and efficient organisational strategy to deliver peer education services to young people. A new organisational model was implemented based on the decentralisation of leadership to zonal co-ordinators. Decentralised training, supervision, and support chains were carefully developed based on a network of regional and zonal youth leaders. Conclusion: The experience of the Anti-AIDS project in Zambia demonstrates that public recognition and ensuing rapid growth can have negative effects on the delivery of a programme. Early in its history, the Anti-AIDS Project in Zambia realised that centrally led expansion reduced the effectiveness of its peer education activities among young people. In response, it developed a decentralised approach to management and technical support and thereby overcame many of the observed problems. Documenting this process and experience offers important lessons on institutional growth and sustainability of youth peer education programmes.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Adolescent
• Africa
• Counseling
• Demography
• HIV Infections
• Humans
• Zambia
• education
• organization & administration

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0004847

UI: 102242344

From Meeting Abstracts