www.stopaidsnow.org January 2010

The project on HIV prevention for youth – Quality and Scale is the fourth development project of STOP AIDS NOW! Its overall goal is to decrease new HIV infection under youth by improving the quality of prevention efforts, in particular Life Skill programmes and to increase their accessibility. Nineteen organisations in Zambia and Zimbabwe are part of this project. The project will end mid 2011 and will results in concrete tools that can be useful for all working in this area of expertise. You can find more information about all the Developing projects of STOP AIDS NOW! on our website.

Meet & Greet!
Pimmy Muzyamba Track coordinator Strenghtening Systems (Zambia)
Pimmy is the track coordinator on Strengthening Systems within the HIV prevention project on Life Skills, quality and scale in Zambia.

Pimmy works as a Programmes Officer at CHEP and is in-charge of all Child Focussed programmes. He lives in Zambia in the Copperbelt province in Kitwe town and has a very busy live, as he has 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls.

Pimmy: “Being a Track coordinator is an important role for me, it will help me see things from a different perspective in dealing with HIV/AIDS issues especially when it comes to issues of Life-Skills”. Click here to read the complete interview.

Enet Mukurazita Track Coordinator M&E (Zimbabwe)
Enet is the track coordinator on M&E within the HIV prevention project on Life Skills, quality and scale in Zimababwe. Enet works for Young Africa and she is the General Manager. She lives in Harare, is married to Godfrey and they have 3 children.

Enet: “I hope that as Young Africa we will be able to really monitor and evaluate our lifeskills program because that is what is lacking for us as an organisation”. Click here to read the complete interview.

Project news
1. Partnership
Ten partners in Zambia take part:
HODI, Women for Change, CHEP, Catholic Diocese of Ndola, PPHZP, HIV/AIDS alliance, SPW, Planned Parenthood Association, PLAN Zambia, NZP+ (NEW)

And nine partners in Zimbabwe:
FACT Mutare, Uzumba Orphan Care, Bekezela Home Based Care, Insiza Godlwayo Aids Council, Umzingwane Aids Network, Patsime Trust, Young Africa, ZACH, African Regional Youth Initiative

2. Priority Areas
Through a number of meetings the partners in Zambia and Zimbabwe have chosen to focus on strengthening Life skill programmes in the following areas:

Zambia:
  • Monitoring and evaluation of Life skill programmes on outcome level
  • Strengthen Systems (in relation to Life skill programmes)
  • Integration of Livelihood into Life Skill programmes

Zimbabwe:

  • Monitoring and evaluation of Life skill programmes on outcome level
  • Volunteers management (in relation to Life skill programmes)
  • Hard to reach youth in relation to Life Skill programmes

The partnership aims to integrate lesson’s learnt about ways to address the challenges they face in these topics and thus increase the quality of their life skill programmes. Activities are described in the Action Plan of the partnership and are based on the Learning by Doing approach. Effects of the activities will be studied and the results of the efforts of the Partnership made visible.

3. Learning By Doing
Through its programmes, STOP AIDS NOW! has built expertise in generating knowledge through a learning by doing approach. The process of learning by doing can be seen as a cycle, it is an ongoing process. The idea behind the learning cycle (by Kolb) is that in every learning process you go through different phases. KolbHe distinguishes four phases:

  • Experience- where you do your work, your activities and gain experience with them
  • Reflection- where you reflect on what it is you have done and what you learned from it by doing it: what worked, what does not?
  • Conceptualisation- where you integrate your learnings and link it to ideas you already had. Concrete output from such a phase can be an article
  • Experiment- where you design your new practice on the basis of what you have learned. For example how you will use the tool you have developed. It is about setting up a pilot

Then the cycle repeats itself, because from the experiment, improved practice will emerge that will lead to new experiences on which you can again reflect, etc.

Download here more info about the Learning by Doing approach

4. Applied Research - Monitoring and evaluation
The work of STOP AIDS NOW! has always been accompanied by research. We find it necessary to demonstrate the effect of our pilot projects. Therefore we have decided that we will explore longer term collaboration with a university or research institute.

For the Prevention programme on Life Skills a tender has been send to 6 well-established institutes. Deadline for submission of proposals is 20th of January 2010.

The tender is for the purpose of guiding the current Life Skill within HIV Prevention programme with applied research. The focus of the research is on the effects of the activities done by the partners. What changes are visible within the organisations and their programmes? What are the effects of these changes on their target group? And what is the effect of the partnership on the quality of their programming?

Download here an example of an end-report: Applied Research in Uganda

For more information regarding the Tender, please contact Miriam Groenhof mgroenhof@stopaidsnow.nl

November E-PAT training
In November 2009, involved organisations received a training on the E-PAT tool (Evidence and rights based Planning and SupportFacilitator: Dorcas Mgugu (FACT Mutare, Zimbabwe) Tool). Joanne Leerlooijer from the World Population Foundation provided the training. The tool is based on the evidence and theories that already exist and provide us characteristics of programmes that have been effective in changing behaviour of young people, and/or created an environment that is supportive to their health and well being.

With the financial support of Cordaid, Oxfam and ICCO all involved organisations from Zambia and Zimbabwe came together to take part in the four day training. With lots of energy they analysed their own programmes using the E-PAT tool and shared their experiences on M&E and effective programming.

Download the complete report
Download the E-PAT Tool

Interesting resources
  • Fact Sheet: Young Women and HIV
    This fact sheet discusses the challenges of young women and what international treaties could help in holding governments accountable for improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young women.
  • Briefing Paper: Young People Living with HIV
    This briefing paper was developed by young people living with HIV. It outlines several key issues, considerations, challenges and recommendations for policy-makers, NGOs, young people, people living with HIV and other actors in the response to HIV to help us all build a supportive and enabling environment for young people living with HIV to realise their rights.
  • GIPA Report Card, Zambia December 2009
    The GIPA Report Card was developed to assess the level and type of involvement of PLHIV in the current response, with a view to informing future efforts to increase their meaningful involvement in future programming


STOP AIDS NOW! is a partnership between Aids Fonds, Hivos, ICCO, Cordaid and Oxfam Novib