The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71933

Akinyele E. Dairo, MD, MPH, Africa Division, United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), 220 East 42nd street, New York, NY 10017, 212 297 5i62, dairo@unfpa.org and Bharam Namanya, UNFPA, Africa Youth Alliance Project, P.O. Box7184, Kampala, Uganda.

In patriarchal societies, as Africa, men are still largely the traditional/cultural, religious and opinion leaders in most communities. This presentation will show the experiences, lessons learned and the impact of partnering with male cultural leaders in promoting adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH) and prevention of HIV infection among young people age 10-24 years old.

Tradition, culture and religion have been used as the barriers for the provision of sexual and reproductive health to young people. Through advocacy, cultural leaders are partners in creating positive policies, byelaws, and the necessary conducive environment including supporting with their own resources for the provision of behaviour change communication, life and livelihood skills, and youth-friendly services to young people. The approach enlisted leadership commitment and ownership of cultural leaders and takes advantage of their influence on the social values and lifestyles of their subjects to prevent HIV infection among young people.

The experience with cultural leaders is under the Uganda African Youth Alliance (AYA) Project, which is part of a multi-agency partnership between UNFPA, PATH and Pathfinder International with national Governments, local NGOs and Community Based Organizations and young people to prevent HIV infection among 10-24 year-olds in four countries in Africa. Although the coverage of implementation AYA Project in Uganda is in 20 out of he 56 districts in Uganda, but the kingdoms of the four cultural leaders involved in this project covers 80% of the total population of Uganda.

Learning Objectives:

• The objective is to acquaint participants with the community advocacy strategies used to enlist the commitment and support of cultural leaders who ordinarily would have been opponents to ASRH, and the benefits of partnership with cultural leaders in prevention of HIV infection among young people

Keywords: Leadership, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment