From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
* Addressing MULTIPLE CONCURRENT PARTNERSHIPS
* Resources for WORLD AIDS DAY
* Awareness and dialogue about INTER-GENERATIONAL SEX
* Poll on CHANGING CULTURAL NORMS AND PRACTICES
* Communication to challenge STIGMA AND DISCRMINATION
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With World AIDS Day coming up on December 1, this edition of The Soul Beat focuses on communication and HIV/AIDS. The newsletter includes programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, evaluations, and materials that look specifically at multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP) and inter-generational sex as drivers of HIV infection, and at discrimination and stigma which not only affects people living with HIV, but also affects the success of prevention, treatment, and care services.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
To subscribe to The Soul Beat, click here or send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com with a subject of "subscribe".
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SOUL BEAT HIV/AIDS THEME SITE
The Soul Beat Africa HIV/AIDS theme site provides a specific focus on information related to HIV/AIDS on the Soul Beat Africa site.
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MULTIPLE CONCURRENT PARTNERSHIPS (MCP)
1. "Three-and-a-half Lives of Philip Wetu" - An Interactive Film - Namibia
This interactive Namibian film seeks to educate and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and relationships. One of the main themes of the film is multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP) which has been identified as one of the major drivers of the epidemic in Namibia. The film tells the story of Philip, a young attractive IT professional whose life revolves around five women. The format of the film is interactive allowing viewers to influence the main character's decisions and therefore the outcome of the story. The film was produced by Media Logistics Namibia and was initiated through the “Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Control Programme” together with the Goethe-Centre Windhoek.
Contact Ndatila Karin Shimii gtz_hiv@iway.na OR Michaela Bauer info@media-logistics-namibia.com
2. Brothers for Life - South Africa
Initiated in 2008 by Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke), Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), and other key stakeholders, Brothers for Life is a national multi-media campaign designed for men over the age of 30. It addresses risks associated with MCP, limited involvement in fatherhood, lack of knowledge of HIV status, low levels of testing and disclosure, and insufficient health seeking behaviours. The campaign seeks to use the spirit of brotherhood to encourage men to positively influence each other.
Contact Bafana Khumalo bafana@genderjustice.org.za OR Dean Peacock dean@genderjustice.org.za OR Yvette Raphael Yvette@jhuccp.co.za
3. Why Multiple Sexual Partners?
By James Shelton
This article, published in The Lancet in August 2009, examines behavioural components of MCP, identified as a driver of HIV infection in southern and eastern Africa. As stated in the article, "A superficial view is that men are driven by uncontrollable sexual urges and the cultural legacy of polygamy, while women are trapped by economic necessity and male domination - a daunting prospect for behavioural change. Although this picture undoubtedly reflects some truth, an emerging and rich sexual ethnographic literature, notably including a ten-country study from South Africa’s Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication, reveals considerable individual autonomy and basis for interventions to change behaviour."
4. Republic of Botswana: National Campaign Plan - Multiple Concurrent Partnerships
The "National Operational Plan for Scaling Up HIV Prevention in Botswana, 2008-2010" calls for Botswana to embark on a multi-year behaviour change campaign, with MCP identified as the initial focus for the campaign. The document presents a national plan which is the product of an intensive, multi-sectoral process, involving national- and district-level policymakers, managers and implementers from across the public sector and civil society, all under the guidance of the National HIV Prevention Technical Advisory Committee.
5. Secret Lovers Kill: A National Mass Media Campaign to Address Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships - AIDSTAR-One: Case Studies Series
By Aldo Spina
This case study, published by AIDSTAR-One in 2009, is about the Makhwapheni (Secret Lovers) Campaign, a national media campaign in Swaziland which focused on HIV prevention with a specific focus on MCP. The campaign was initiated by the government's National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) in 2006. The campaign launched with controversial and blunt messages about the practice of "secret lovers" which sparked passionate national debate in the media and in communities about the practice of makhwapheni. According to survey data, the number of men reporting two or more partners dropped by 50% immediately after the campaign began. However, the campaign was suspended due to objections raised about the stigmatising effect of what was termed fear-based advertising.
6. Multiple Concurrent Partnerships in a Sub-Saharan Setting: Biases in Self-Reported Measures and Their Implications for HIV/AIDS Prevention
By Stephane Helleringer, Linda Kalilani-Phiri, Jemima A. Frimpong, and James Mkandawire
According to the abstract of this research conducted in Likoma, a small island in the northern region of Lake Malawi in Malawi: "We use sexual network data from a small island on Lake Malawi, in conjunction with a simple model of HIV transmission, to assess whether self-reports of partnership concurrency possibly underestimate the contribution of MCP to HIV epidemics. We find that the prevalence of MCP was significantly higher in this population according to estimates derived from network data. Self-reported data underestimated the proportion of incident infections attributable to MCP by more than 50%. Our results emphasize the need for interventions addressing patterns of sexual networking at the population level..."
7. Multiple Concurrent Partnerships and the Church: Assessing the Attitudes and Perceptions of Community Leaders of Faith
BY Chinyelu K. Lee, Dorothy Brewster, and Rose A. Nesbitt
This report, published by the Pan African Christian AIDS Network (PACANet) in 2009, shares findings from a survey that sought to access churchgoers' perceptions about MCPs and the church's response to these relationships. The aim of the research was to help church leaders better understand the attitudes and perceptions surrounding these relationships in order to develop effective interventions. The study, which collected data from religious leaders and faith-based organisations in western, southern, and eastern Africa and across denominations, found that evangelicals were less likely to perceive MCPs as a problem within their congregations. Additionally, most tended to explain MCPs by drawing on gender stereotypes.
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WORLD AIDS DAY
Click here to find information and resources on World AIDS Day.
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INTER-GENERATIONAL SEX
8. Fataki Campaign - Tanzania
The Fataki Campaign uses radio and visual media, such as banners, to promote awareness and discussion about cross-generational sex in Tanzania. The campaign was piloted in one region from February to October 2008 by Strategic Radio Communication for Development (STRADCOM) and was then launched nationally in November 2008. The idea behind the campaign was to challenge the acceptance of cross-generational relationships as the norm and to introduce an element of ridicule and stigma of older men who seek sex with young girls.
Contact Robert Karam robert.karam@jhuccptz.org
9. Sinigurisha Campaign - Rwanda
Initiated in May 2009,"Sinigurisha" (I am not for sale) was a 6-month HIV prevention campaign in Rwanda which sought to warn against cross-generational sex involving both older men and older women. The campaign was designed under the leadership of the Ministry of Youth and the National AIDS Control Commission (Commission Nationale de Lutte Contre le Sida, CNLS) and funded by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with technical support from Population Services International (PSI) Rwanda. The campaign contains three key messages which unfold over six months on a national scale using a multimedia approach that includes billboards, print materials, television and radio spots, community events, and interpersonal communications.
Contact Philbert Rugumire prugumire@psirwanda.org OR Colette Mukandoli info@miniyouth.gov.rw OR Jean Pierre Ayingoma ayingomaj@yahoo.fr
10. Addressing Cross-Generational Sex: A Desk Review of Research and Programs
By Ruth Hope
This review of cross-generational sex outside marriage, published by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in 2007, was commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health to inform USAID staff on the range of programmatic approaches available to prevent or reduce cross-generational sex. The report argues that there is a need for further investment in large-scale programmes that address cross-generational sex, including related transactional sex, in the countries most affected. The research showed that effective programmes are likely to garner changes in social norms as well as address the determinants of individuals’ behaviour. To generate further knowledge on what works in what situations and on best practice guidance, programmes need to be well designed and rigorously monitored and evaluated.
11. Cross-Generational Sex: Risks and Opportunities
By Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs and Heidi Worley
This brief, published by the Population Reference Bureau in 2008, is based on a larger review entitled, "Addressing Cross-Generational Sex: A Desk Review of Research and Programs"(see above) as well as discussions with experts about the findings of this review. The brief is designed to broaden the understanding of cross-generational sex, look at how many young girls it affects, describe frameworks that guide current thinking about the behaviour, and propose lessons for improving future interventions. The brief proposes that there are important lessons to be learned when looking beyond surface portrayals of cross-generational sex to understanding the motivations behind this behaviour and the increased risks it engenders.
12. Relative Risks and the Market for Sex: Teenagers, Sugar Daddies and HIV in Kenya
This study from 2006 reports on an information campaign that provided Kenyan teenagers in randomly selected schools with the information that HIV prevalence was much higher among adult men and their partners than among teenage boys. This led to a 65% decrease in the incidence of teenage pregnancies by adult partners in the treatment group relative to the comparison group and suggests a large reduction in the incidence of unprotected cross-generational sex. The information campaign did not, however, increase pregnancies among teenage couples. According to this report, the results suggest that the behavioural choices of teenagers are responsive to information on the relative risks of different varieties of risky activity.
13. Battling Old Behaviour the New Front in AIDS Fight
By Kathryn May
This article from 2008 looks at the "Sugar Babes" campaign which was initiated by Population Services International (PSI) and aims to discourage the sugar daddy phenomenon. The Sugar Babes campaign borrowed from the 1980s "zero-grazing" drive that helped stop new infections in Uganda 20 years ago - empowering women and mobilising church, political and community leaders. The article argues that a new resurgence in HIV infection in Uganda has been spurred on by an increase in multiple concurrent partnerships which in part involve older men and younger women. According to the article, although campaigns discouraging multiple partners in the 1980s led to a decline in HIV prevalence, recent campaigns have shifted their focus to other aspects of prevention, leading to a new generation that is largely unaware of the risks associated with multiple concurrent partners.
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PLEASE VOTE IN THE NEW HIV/AIDS POLL
In the context of reducing multiple and concurrent partnerships, what are the BIGGEST challenges or obstacles to changing cultural norms and practices that place people at risk of HIV infection: (you may choose more than one option)
Options:
* Role models who are openly supporting risky cultural norms and practices
* Traditional leaders who are set in their views
* Lack of peer pressure
* Continuing community sanction of risky cultural norms and practices
* Lack of women’s empowerment (which itself is related to cultural norms)
* Media and advertising that perpetuate risky cultural values and practices
* Other
To vote and send comments click here and see the Top Right side of the page.
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STIGMA AND DISCRMINATION
14. Finding Courage in Faith: Religious Leaders Challenge Stigma and Mobilise a Faith-based Response to HIV in Kenya
This brief from 2009, prepared by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Health Policy Initiative, shares strategies and lessons learned from the Health Policy Initiative's work to help support the Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS (KENERELA+). This group of religious leaders seek to equip, empower, and engage religious leaders living with or personally affected by HIV and AIDS to live positively and openly as agents of hope and change. The brief states that the network has gained national recognition and inclusion in key policymaking bodies, cultivated strong champions at both the national and community levels, and stimulated active responses to HIV in faith communities.
15. Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma: Toolkit for Action
By Ross Kidd, Sue Clay, Chipo Chiiya, and Mutale Chonta
This toolkit originally evolved out of a two-year research project on stigma conducted in Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia and was originally published in 2003. The 2007 version of the toolkit contains over 100 participatory exercises which can be adapted to fit different groups and contexts. There are different sets of pictures which can help to identify stigma, discuss the rights of positive people and help to stimulate discussions around gender and sexuality and morality issues linked to stigma.
16. Fighting HIV and AIDS Stigma in Northern Uganda - Uganda
In December 2007, the World Association of Christian Communication (WACC) and the Entebbe Women Association (EWA) embarked on a project to fight stigma among people living with HIV/AIDS in the Gulu Municipal Council. Centrally located in Northern Uganda, Gulu serves as a hub of economic activity in the region, including Southern Sudan. The project included radio programmes, drama performances, and training and advocacy.
Contact WACC INFO@waccglobal.org OR Tuhumwire Margret ewamission@gmail.com AND ewamission@yahoo.ca
17. Soul Buddyz - Tomorrow Is Ours: Evaluation Report 2008
This report presents an independent evaluation of Soul Buddyz, a multi-media intervention designed for children aged 8 to 14 in South Africa. An initiative of the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication (IHDC), in partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Soul Buddyz aims to focus on the promotion of children's well-being through the provision of health information and skills to lead healthy lives, especially those which relate to HIV and AIDS and sexuality. According to the evaluation, conducted in 2006, Soul Buddyz was successful in achieving its primary intended outcome most relevant to HIV and AIDS, which was decreasing the stigma related to the disease and increasing knowledge of basic facts.
18. Reducing HIV Stigma and Discrimination: A Critical Part of National AIDS Programmes
This document, published in 2007 by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), discusses how the United Nations (UN) system, funding mechanisms, and bilateral partners can support countries - through advocacy, strategic planning, technical assistance, resource mobilisation, and other means - to reduce stigma and discrimination related to HIV. It seeks to answer the question: "How can national AIDS authorities, UNAIDS, UN Joint Teams on AIDS and other partners help reduce stigma and discrimination?"
19. How Can We Tackle Stigma and Discrimination through Effective Communication?
This background paper, published by Panos London in 2007, discusses stigma and discrimination as major obstacles to effective HIV and AIDS responses. It was produced as part of the Panos London/Healthlink Worldwide Spark series of discussions on health communication. The paper defines stigma and discrimination and delineates the ways in which they are key barriers to the achievement of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment care, and support by 2010.
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Related previous issues of The Soul Beat include:
The Soul Beat 141 - Regional Onelove HIV Prevention Campaign - Update
The Soul Beat 119 - HIV Prevention - Multiple Concurrent Partnerships (MCP)
The Soul Beat 112 - Materials - HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, and Lifeskills
The Soul Beat 94 - HIV/AIDS Communication
Click here to view all archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.
