Angola

HIV/AIDS Project

Title: 00011109	Strengthening the Education System in Angola to Combat HIV/AIDS
Duration	August 2003 to December 2006
Amount	USD 3.423.320
SOF	UNDP; TRAC 1.1.1; Cost Sharing  Norway Government, CDC Atlanta, UNAIDS
Key achievement need:	The project aims to build a social political strategy that reduces the HIV/AIDS impact in the Angolan Educational system (AES). This will be done with strengthening of educational system and the increase of its capacity in promoting development through the following activities: a) Training teachers, future teachers, community leaders on Human Rights, Peace, Gender and HIV and doing awareness raising of the Armed Forces; b) Creating and strengthening social and community based networks that will provide care andservices for adolescent mothers, orphans, and women living with aids; c) Undertaking an evaluation Study of HIV impact in Educational system and drawing strategies for prevention and cure; strengthening the capacity of designing educational materials for use in schools and Media while taking into account the cultural customs of the communities.
Modality of  Execution:	NEX
Implementing Partners:	Ministry of Education
Site	Project office in Luanda
Contact Persons	Nimi Assimbi, Tel. 923512699

Brief Description

In Angola there has been an explosive increase of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which threatens to reverse decades of development, increasing poverty and undermining the very foundations of progress and security.

This project aims to combat the epidemic and the causes of HIV/AIDS expansion through building a social policy strategy that reduces its impact in the Angolan educational system (AES). The AES is the key actor in building the human and social capital necessary to fight the epidemic. The AES will be strengthened through the pursuit of the following axes of intervention:

a)     Training of social actors (teachers, community leaders, and members of the Armed Forces and the media) in human rights, peace, Gender and HIV and facilitating community ownership of the themes.

b)     Building and strengthening community social networks where the above themes are discussed and services provided to adolescent mothers, orphans and women and men living with HIV/AIDS.

c)     Evaluation Study of the HIV/AIDS impact on the Educational System and design of prevention strategies.

d)     Strengthening the capacity for designing educational materials that include cultural references of the different communities. The materials will be used in schools and by the media.

This project adopts a holistic strategy of strengthening the educational system (formal and informal) by preparing the Angolan population, and in particular the young generations, to combat the spreading of AIDS, violence and poverty. This will be done through favouring the development in the young generations of trust, communication-relationships skills and creating an environment that strengthens the Culture of Peace, Gender Equity and Development with respect of the Human Rights.

What has been achieved?

Training social actors (teachers, community leaders, armed forces, churches, and media) and development of educational and informative materials:

 i) Implementation of activities developed by the nucleus of Education and AIDS (coordinated by the Provincial Directors of Education), specifically by the social actors, testing of educational materials on Sexual Transmissible Diseases (STD), HIV/AIDS, sexuality, reproductive health, gender and culture of peace:

ii) Training of more than 118 social actors in Peace, Gender and Peace culture in the provinces of Luanda, Huíla, and Cuando Cubango, and a reinforcement of action was made in Kwanza-Sul in total of 103 social actors, until September 2005. From October to December 2005, it was created the Provincial AIDS and Education Nucleus of Kwando-Kubango that implemented the action plan to the province and worked with 18 schools, benefiting 264 teachers and raised awareness in 2210 students. From January to March 2006 the project worked in 3 provinces, training 159 social actors (53 in each province) that will have a peer action in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, gender, human rights, peace and justice in schools and in the community. It was also held a refreshment session in the provinces of Uíge and Zaire to the social actors.

iii) It took place the second biding about Education and AIDS in the province of Luanda, where 6 schools participated with the total of 105 participants.

iv) Peer educator’s actions in the province of Luanda with the participation of 400 parents, about STD/HIV/AIDS, sexuality, reproductive health, gender and culture of peace.

v) Technical support to 24 schools in 3 provinces, in terms of replication the methodology and training of teachers in Gender and HIV/AIDS.

vi) Extension of HIV/AIDS prevention to Cunene Province with Armed Forces. This province has a frontier with Namibia and is known to be impoverished and with mobile and vulnerable populations. Hence UNAIDS GENEVA has funds available  - approximately 100,000 USD - to work in this province and identified the Armed Forces and Police as implementers of HIV/AIDS work. Given that our HIV/AIDS project already works with the Armed Forces and the Police in Luanda, Huíla and now Kwanza-Sul, UNAIDS would like to use UNDP methodology and partners. An activists’ training of the Armed Forces and the National Police in the provinces of Namibe, Cunene and Huila was held.

vii) Produced information material (9000 copies of brochures, posters and primers, which will be distributed between the nucleus and schools where the project is acting.

viii) Revision of didactic material (from the 1 st to the 9 th grade embracing the disciplines of Portuguese, social environment, sciences, biology and civic and moral education), as well as the production of materials from the 10 th to the 13 th grade, for biology and civic and moral education. The inter-disciplinary team proceeded to the revision of the pedagogic materials of the social environment from 1 st to the 6 th grade, Portuguese language from the 5 th to the 7 th grade, and geography. The elaboration of pedagogic materials for other grades is still on progress.

ix) Elaboration of a training manual for teachers and social actors for STD/HIV/AIDS. The manual for training teachers and social actors in what concerns sexual transmissible diseases, HIV and AIDS are in reproduction. The informative materials were printed and replicated and some distributed.

x) It has been held an inter-provincial workshop among the Education and HIV/AIDS Provincial nucleus from the 15 th to the 16 th February 2006. This workshop had the objective to change experiences (lessons learnt) between the nucleus about the developed activities in 2005, as well to plan the 2006 activities. 10 out of the 11 provinces (Cunene, Moxico, Huila, Namibe, Uide, Bengo, Kwanza Sul, Luanda and Kuando Kubango) invited were present, as Lunda Sul could not make it due to work schedule constraints.

Study analysis about the impact of HIV/AIDS component: Elaboration of tools, team preparation, starting of the field work, statistical systematization, analysis of information and publication of the seroprevalence study and the social representation of the Angolans in terms of HIV/AIDS:

i) Elaboration of the study “Angolan’s perceptions of HIV/AIDS issues and their levels of Human Development”: With regard to the fourth objective – a study on Angolans’ perception of HIV/AIDS issues – studies were carried out in 10 provinces and by December 2005 the study will be finished, as planned. The questionnaire was applied in 6 provinces: Zaire, Uige, Bengo, Cunene, Cuando Cubango e Lunda Sul. At the moment, field work is being done in order to apply the questionnaires, in Kwanza Norte, Lunda Norte, Malanje and Moxico. The questionnaires have been collected in the provinces of Kwanza Norte, Lunda-Norte, Malanje and Moxico and digitized. During the first trimester 2006, the results of the inquiries made to teachers, students and population in general were analyzed.

ii) Elaboration and development of the seroprevalence study in the education sector: The study went through a preparatory phase and the recruitment of consultants, design of the investigation protocol, and protocol implementation are ongoing. 20 people were trained in order to work on the research and blood sampling. The voluntary sample covers 876 people (students, teachers and other school functionaries), among the secondary school (from the 7 th to the 13 th grade). There have been collected 876 samples of serum tested from students and education professionals from different schools in Luanda and the project is waiting for the results in order to finalize the study.

iii) UNDP signed an agreement with CDC for the Operational Support to the National Seroprevalence Study on HIV, Syphilis and Hep B for the year 2005. The results are still not published. The primary propose of HIV/Syphilis/Hepatitis B sentinel sero-surveillance is to track HIV and other sexually transmitted infections level in specific populations accessed through “watch-post” institutions. Data from sentinel surveillance activities are also useful for planning and monitoring the success of interventions as well as for advocacy purposes at the local and regional levels. Finally, sentinel surveillance data at the national level can be used to estimate or project HIV prevalence within the general population. Sentinel surveillance data are the foundation in most countries for characterizing key aspects of the HIV epidemic. This will be an exercise of capacity building fir the National Institute for the Fight against AIDS (Ministry of Health) in the realm of administration and project implementation.

Regulation of the HIV/AIDS Legislation component

The activity of Regulation of HIV/AIDS Legislation started it’s action on the 25th of July, with the organization of a technical group meeting (The participants are the following: Juridical bureau from the Ministry of Health, INLS, GESA – consultant company, CONGA, ANASO, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNHRO, UNDP - Global Fund), in the National Institute to Fight against AIDS. The report made by a national and international consultant about the HIV/AIDS legislation in Angola, with the proposals of the regulation of the National Institute to Fight AIDS, the National Commission to Fight AIDS and Large Endemics and the HIV/AIDS Law was delivered to the Minster of Health in December 2005.

Creation and strengthening of community social networks that will provide support services for teenage mothers, orphans, and people living with HIV/AIDS: Monitor and provide capacity building of NGOs working on the ground with target group:

i)) Study of the work done by Local NGO’s in Angola: According to the study elaborated before about the work done by Angolan NGO’s on HIV/AIDS, which was developed in the provinces of Luanda and Huila. The project was enlarged to Kwanza Sul. In this sense, the project seeks to know which local NGO’s work in this area, know their capacities of intervention and identify possible partners for their actions.

ii) Financial and material support to HIV/AIDS NGO’s: The second phase of a public biding was held, selecting of 12 NGO’s, specially working with orphans, teenager mothers, people living with HIV/AIDS and women, in Luanda and Huila. This activity has the objective to strengthen the capacity of civil society in order to answer to the epidemics and to diminish the vulnerability of mentioned groups.

v) Capacity-Building Seminar for ANASO for the development of its action plan in the context of Global Fund financing, August 2005: this seminar had the objective to clarify what is the Global Fund project (UNDP is the main recipient) and it’s priorities of intervention.

Ongoing Projects (by MYFF Service Lines)

5. Responding to HIV/AIDS

Project ID	Title
5.1 LEADERSHIP AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT TO ADDRESS HIV/aids
00011109	Strengthening the Education System in Angola to Combat HIV/AIDS
5.2 DEVELOPMENT PLANNING, IMPLEMENTATION AND HIV/AIDS RESPONSES
00046824	Reducing burden of HIV/AIDS in Angola