Education and Health

—With Focus on HIV/AIDS—

Abstract

HIV/AIDS is affecting both the supply of education and the demand for education, weakening the education system in the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, it is increasingly recognized that education can and should play a major role in HIV prevention. In this context, in 2004, the “Global Initiative on HIV/AIDS and Education” was launched by the cosponsoring UN organizations of UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), including UNICEF, UNESCO and WHO. In promoting this Initiative, the international community should take advantage of the existing global policy frameworks, including the “FRESH (Focusing Resources on Effective School Health)” approach launched at the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, where life skills-based health education is one of the four pillars. Another existing international consensus is the booklet called “Facts for Life” that was first published by UNICEF, WHO and UNESCO in 1993, and is now globally circulated in 215 languages. Nevertheless, in order to implement these global policies at the local level, the partnerships need to be built between the education sector and the health sector, as well as between teachers and health workers in the countries. Some recent developments in Kenya will be briefly introduced to illustrate the challenges in providing gender-sensitive life skills-based health education for primary school children and out-of- school children.