Notes on YRH Policy

Threat to Legislation Outlawing Child Marriage in Yemen

Although Yemen's parliament has agreed to set the minimum age for marriage at 17, there are concerns the decision may be rescinded as some members of parliament (MPs) say the amendments violate Sharia (Islamic) law.
Source: IRIN Middle East (2009) February 23
Available online at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83081

African Union Declares Decade on Youth Development in Africa

The Assembly of Heads of State and government of the African Union has declared the years 2009-2019 as the decade of youth development in Africa. The decade was declared during the last Executive Council held in January 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia within the context of the outcomes and prospects related to the Year of African Youth 2008 and to facilitate the implementation of the African Youth Charter after its ratification. Read more...

Condom Access in South African Schools: Law, Policy, and Practice

Summary Points
1. South Africa's recently adopted Children's Act provides children the right to access reproductive health services as a way of addressing the HIV pandemic, but there remains confusion about how socially divisive rights provided for by the Act, such as condom access for youth, will be achieved.
2. The Children's Act, together with South African government policies, allows individual schools to decide whether to distribute condoms, but most school staff are unaware of South African policy and regulations governing condom provision in schools.
3. Because of confusing and contradictory government policies and public pronouncements regarding provision of condoms in public schools, few schools have undertaken to provide condoms, leaving students, especially in rural areas, with few options for obtaining them.
4. PEPFAR regulations potentially conflict with South African law by prohibiting PEPFAR-funded organizations from distributing condoms in schools or providing condom information to youth aged 14 and under.
5. The current South African government's policy of leaving the decision of whether to distribute condoms in schools to the School Governing Body of individual schools, rather than enacting a clear national policy, is unlikely to be an effective public health strategy for improving access to condoms for the population of youths at high risk for HIV.
Source:Han J, Bennish ML (2009) Condom Access in South African Schools: Law, Policy, and Practice. PLoS Med (2009) 6(1): e1000006 http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000006

Law of silence trumps anti-trafficking rule in Togo

Parents, police and even judges are hesitant to press charges against human-traffickers because of fear of punishment, concern for the community and confusion about Togo's 2005 anti-trafficking law, according to an NGO analysis of the law. Traffickers face up to 10 years in prison and US$20,000 in fines under Togo’s 2005 anti-trafficking law. Forty-five cases have been brought against suspected traffickers and family accomplices, according to a review of the law conducted in March 2008 by CARE International. Of more than 400 families in which a child had been trafficked, 55 percent said they knew the person who recruited their child for what turned out to be gruelling and often unpaid work, according to a 2002 survey by the NGO Plan International. CARE International’s Togo director, Phillip Kodjo Yodo, told IRIN family and community relations discourage public denunciations in Togo. “The anti-trafficking law has not been adequately applied because people do not see their family as criminals even if these people carry out illegal acts.” Yodo added that the law should not punish parents, as is the case now, in order to encourage more of them to press charges against traffickers. CARE’s study raised this possibility. “Traffickers tell parents who threaten to denounce them ‘If you press charges, you will also be held responsible. The law will not spare you.’ A parent in this situation will be happy just to have recuperated their child safely.”
Source: IRIN Africa(2009) January 8
Available online at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82260

Adolescent boys: who cares?

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are developing strategies to make male circumcision part of a comprehensive strategy for HIV prevention. The critical question is how to increase young men’s access to and use of safe male circumcision services. The editorial's authors find it surprising that despite significant morbidity among adolescents and young men, so little attention has been paid to the complications of traditional male circumcision by most organizations. They go on to say that in addition to improving adolescent boys' access to safe male circumcision services when these are provided within a traditional context, we must also carefully regulate the providers in the formal health-care system to ensure that they are adequately trained and have the equipment and supplies to perform male circumcision safely and effectively.
Source: Bulletin of the WHO(2008) 86(9): 659-60
Available online at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/9/08-057752.pdf

Addressing the vulnerability of young women and girls to stop the HIV epidemic in southern Africa

AIDS (Dec. 2008) Volume 22, Suppl 4; extract from introduction on a separate Notes page.
There is no time to lose if HIV prevention is to make significant strides against the relentless HIV epidemic of southern Africa, which is mortgaging the future of hundreds of thousands of young women and girls. The articles included in this supplement are being transformed into hard-hitting issues briefs that will be used to influence policy makers and leaders across the region and at all levels through appropriate advocacy and communication. Nothing less than social transformation is needed now to turn this epidemic around. Every individual must see himself or herself as implicated in his or her personal and professional lives in either condoning the status quo or confronting it.

Unsafe Abortions Rife Among Teenagers

Research conducted by Pathfinder International (PI), an international non-governmental organisation, has revealed that the proportion of women aged 15-19 who had had an unsafe abortion in Africa, was higher than for any other region in the world. The Youth Friendly Post-Abortion Care project was implemented in eight countries, including Ghana, Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. It was to address unsafe abortion among adolescent women and increase access to PAC services in the implementing countries.
Reported at: http://www.modernghana.com/newsp/189674/1/pageNum1/unsafe-abortions-rife-among-teenagers.html
Visit Pathfinder International to access publications on the Youth Friendly Post-Abortion Care project issued in October 2008.

CARE Nepal: Project to fight the harmful practice of child marriage

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Awards CARE more than $2.8 million to help fight the harmful practice of child marriage. CARE Nepal will receive nearly $1.5 million for a three-year project that aims to transform community traditions of child marriage through educational and behavioral change campaigns. The initiative will also advocate for the establishment and enforcement of laws and policies that address child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence.
Reported at: http://media-newswire.com/release_1076062.html

Viet Nam Ministerial Plan on HIV/AIDS (2008-2012)

Having every citizen involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention activities at community level to 2012
http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/showarticle.php?num=02POP081008 http://www.vnagency.com.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/270789/Default.aspx
The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism and the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee (Oct. 6, 2008) signed a ministerial plan which aims to mobilise the whole nation to be involved in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The plan, titled Having every citizen involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention activities at community level to 2012, aims to raise people’s awareness and inspire every citizen to be consciously involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention activities in their resident areas. It also aims to encourage and create opportunities for families of people living with HIV/AIDS, intravenous drug users, commercial sex workers and migrants to get involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention activities. The plan also aims to push forward and enhance the involvement and role of heads of communities, village heads, heads of local branches of the VFF, the elderly, various sectors and mass organisations in HIV/AIDS control and prevention activities.

St. Lucia Developing HIV/AIDS Policy For Education System

Stakeholders involved in St. Lucia's education system met last week to commence work on an HIV/AIDS policy for the sector, the Caribbean Media Corporation/Antigua Sun reports. The policy will include mechanisms to ensure that the education system can deal with the disease, and Nahum Jn Baptiste, head of St. Lucia's HIV Secretariat, said that orphans and vulnerable children will be targeted under the policy. He added that the policy will address issues such as identifying students in need of care and referring them to providers (Caribbean Media Corporation/Antigua Sun, 9/1). "There will also be the issue of health and family life education, so it's not just about the transmission of HIV and AIDS but trying to have students develop positive lifestyles, which would help secure them not only from the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted [infections] but to live a full life," Jn Baptiste said. According to Jn Baptiste, the policy will be implemented when the draft is approved by St. Lucia's Cabinet (Caribbean Media Corporation, 9/1).

Reported in Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report.

Experts Call for Global Sex, HIV Education Programs To Expand Beyond Discussions of Safer Sex Practices

Added August 19, 2008

Many sex and HIV/AIDS education programs around the world focus on the risks of unsafe sex, which can leave young people unprepared to deal with their sexuality or lead sexually fulfilling lives, experts said at a satellite session on comprehensive sex education at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, IRIN News reports.

Maria Alcaldes, deputy director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said teachers often are not sufficiently trained to teach sex education in a way that allows children to make informed and responsible decisions. She said, "There is a need for sexuality education that goes beyond teaching the basic biology." Alcaldes noted that although Latin American countries have committed to comprehensive sex education programs, the number of teenage pregnancies in the region has increased. She said governments must work with communities to address these concerns.

Prabha Nagarja of the Indian organization Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues, which runs an anonymous help line, said the group's efforts have shown many shortcomings in India's approach to sex education. She said, "A new national curriculum on sex education tells young people what not to do sexually, without telling them why or explaining to them the most basic things, such as how intercourse happens." She added that callers to the group's help line "have no idea how to protect themselves" from HIV/AIDS. Swedish AIDS Ambassador Lennarth Hjelmaker said, "Teaching about the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is necessary, but it must go hand in hand with teaching about healthy sexuality and communicating with young people about their experiences" (IRIN News, 8/6).

Coverage in Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Reports