UNICEF-funded HIV/AIDS BCC Activities

Project dates: (March 2001 - December 2001)

Themes: HIV/AIDS, Youth, and Capacity Building.

• Overview
• Partners
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans

Overview

UNICEF and CCP completed two activities in the year 2001:

1. A Training of Trainers (TOT) curriculum for HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) for youth in freestanding settings.
2. Two regional HIV/AIDS Behavior Change Communication (BCC) Planning and Processes Workshops.
   

Partners

• UNICEF
• National and Regional AIDS Council Secretariats
  

Objectives

• The TOT curriculum aims to provide uniformity in the tone and content of VCT counseling in free-standing settings as well as to ensure that the VCT counseling is conducted within the bounds of Ethiopian and international HIV/AIDS and VCT guidelines.
• The BCC Planning and Processes workshops aim to strengthen the BCC capacity of members of the National and Regional AIDS Councils and partner organizations in four regions: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Dire Dawa and Tigray.
  

Activities

• VCT training needs assessment
• Curriculum review workshop
• Design of an Ethiopian version of the Strategic Communication Planning and Evaluation (SCOPE) software, first developed in 1996 by CCP for training purposes and now offered as a BCC analysis and planning tool to health program managers. The SCOPE software package has been adapted for Ethiopia and is designed to focus specifically on HIV/AIDS and youth.
  

VCT TOT Curriculum

Outputs

• VCT TOT curriculum was developed.
• Two BCC workshops were completed using SCOPE. Participants included staff from the National AIDS Council Secretariat.
• Sixty workshop participants were trained in skills essential for developing BCC campaigns to combat HIV/AIDS.
  

Impact

BCC Workshops on HIV/AIDS

CCP training teams conducted two BCC workshops in Ethiopia over 10-day intervals in 2001: one in Bahar Dar in late October and the other in Nazareth in early December. In post-workshop surveys, participants evaluated both workshops as 9.6 on a 10-point scale (10 as the highest). Participants rated individual components of the workshops (lectures, role-plays, audiovisuals, group exercises, and presentations) equally highly. Ten separate, peer-critiqued communication campaign plans were designed by the participants during each workshop, ready to implement in specific local settings as selected by participants. These plans by UNICEF representatives are starting efforts to establish IEC working groups in four regions of Ethiopia.

One participant at the October workshop returned to practice her skills as a facilitator at the workshop in December. She acquired new skills at the second workshop, and implemented these as a participant at a BCC workshop sponsored by the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat in late December 2001.

As a direct outcome of the December training workshop, 14 participants independently secured funding from the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia to continue BCC training in Dire Dawa. Their plan proposes two 2-day workshops covering the P-process and other BCC program methods, as well as a 2-day advocacy workshop to establish an advocacy coalition.

Recommendations emerged as part of the participants' evaluations, strongly encouraging continued support of this workshop in remaining regions of Ethiopia, recruitment of more female participants, periodic follow-up of course alumni to nurture networks, and longer workshop duration (2 weeks) to ensure maximal learning and mastery of new training media.

VCT-TOT curriculum

No evaluation has yet been conducted to evaluate VCT-TOT curriculum development project outcomes.

Unique Features

• Provision of VCT is focused on adolescents and is provided in free-standing adolescent-friendly sites as opposed to government hospitals, which frequently deter youth from accessing services. VCT services in Ethiopia to date have typically neglected adolescent needs for HIV prevention and reproductive health services.

Future Plans

• Negotiations for future collaboration with UNICEF are underway.
  
  

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