Accelerating Education’s Response to HIV&AIDS in Nigeria – Summary document

In 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria, with support from the Accelerate Initiative Working Group, conducted a 5-year review of the Nigerian Government and development partners’ collaboration to build a systematic education sector response to HIV&AIDS in-country. The review documents the implementation process and key achievements of Nigeria’s response to HIV between November 2002 and 2007 and is written by PCD with Action Health Incorporated, the Nigerian Ministry of Education and the World Bank.

Findings from the review demonstrate that Nigeria’s education sector is playing a significant role in reaching a large section of the population with a comparatively low risk of HIV infection, providing children with the "˜social vaccine’ of education to live life free from HIV. Future priorities for the sector’s response include:

"¢ Implementation of the national education sector HIV policy.
"¢ Improving the monitoring and evaluation of programmes.
"¢ Scaling up the delivery of curriculum and access to voluntary counselling and testing among education staff and students.
"¢ Increasing the provision of education incentives for orphans and vulnerable children.

A summary of the Nigeria review precedes the full technical report (in-press). This summaryis availableon the Schools and Health site.

Accelerating the Education Sector Response to HIV&AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa - A Rapid Situation Analysis of 34 Countries

The Western, Eastern and Central Africa Networks of Ministry of Education HIV&AIDS Focal Points, with support from the World Bank, UNAIDS, UNESCO and PCD, have developed a report which present the results from a rapid situation analysis of the education sector response to HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The identification of priority areas in school health, nutrition and HIV&AIDS in each country is enabling government officials to concentrate resources and programming in these areas, and will aid future planning both within each country and collectively across the Networks. The findings also serve as a baseline from which countries and the Networks can measure their progress in coming years.Of the 37 Network countries, 34 responded.Key findings from the 34 country responses include:

"¢ 76% have an education sector HIV&AIDS strategy and an HIV&AIDS plan.
"¢ 62% offer HIV&AIDS counselling to teachers.
"¢ 91% are training teachers to protect themselves.
"¢ 94% have an HIV&AIDS Focal Point within the Ministry of Education.
"¢ 100% provide HIV&AIDS school-based prevention education of some form.
"¢ 74% are training teachers in a life skills approach.
"¢ 71% ensure orphans and vulnerable children do not have to pay school fees.

This documentis available on the Schools and Health website.