US$5 million boost for extensive sexuality education

Twenty tertiary education institutions in Zambia and Zimbabwe will receive a total of US$5 million in 2021 to implement comprehensive campus-wide sexual reproductive health, rights and sexuality education programmes designed to address the triple threat of gender-based violence, new HIV infections and unplanned pregnancies.

The four-year programme, to end in December 2024 and dubbed “Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future”, is being funded by the government of Switzerland and implemented by the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, the Zambian and Zimbabwean ministries of higher and tertiary education, and other partners within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

Selected institutions will be grouped into clusters, with each cluster comprising not more than two institutions, which will get up to US$100,000 that they will use to develop and incorporate life skills education and comprehensive sexuality education in the curricula, among other activities.

Other higher and tertiary education institutions across SADC will benefit through knowledge sharing platforms and annual general meetings.

Patricia Machawira, the UNESCO Southern Africa’s regional health education and HIV advisor, said the project was meant to secure and sustain political commitment from higher and tertiary education institutions for institutionalising comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health rights throughout policies and curriculum, support greater uptake of improved quality reproductive health rights services and information by students, ensure that campus environments are safer and more inclusive for all students, and strengthen the evidence base for sexuality education or reproductive health rights needs and effective approaches with higher and tertiary education institutions.

Gender-based violence

Lucas Halimani, a national programme specialist for HIV and health education with UNESCO, said a competitive bidding process was currently underway to choose suitable institutions of higher learning.

“Funding for the project is still under negotiation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. As you will appreciate, COVID-19 has brought with it a number of dynamics that are changing the way we work and the resources that are available. The funding under discussion is in the region of US$5 million,” he added.

Child marriages and gender-based violence are some of the current impediments to adolescents and young people realising their right to education, but health experts believe that effective comprehensive sexuality programmes consistently increase student knowledge about HIV and other health issues, delay the age of sexual debut, and increase the use of contraception including condoms by young people.

A 2019 report by the Kenyan-based African Population and Health Research Center, Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, identified social-cultural norms and values, funding, parental attitudes and inadequate teacher training as the main barriers to effective implementation of comprehensive sexuality education in the region.