Joan Haffey¹, Amina Ali¹, Biubwa Khatib Sulieman², Iddrissa Muslih Hijja², Samia Suluhu Hassan², Omar Dadi Shajak², and Ugochi Daniels³. (1) African Youth Alliance (Tanzania), Program for Appropiate Technologies in Health (PATH), 1800 K St. NW, Washington, DC 20006, 202-822-0033, jhaffey@path-dc.org, (2) Vocational Education and Training Department (VETD), Zanzibar Ministry of Youth, Labour, Employment, Women and Children, c/o African Youth Alliance, 220e 42nd St, New York, NY 10017, (3) African Youth Alliance, United Nations Population Fund, 220E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017

Zanzibar health services are poor both in terms infrastructure and capacity. Also, school drop out rates are high. Due to limited capacity to accommodate students in the existing educational institutions, the Ministry of Youth, Labour, Employment, Women and Children (MYLEWC) established the Vocational Education and Training Department (VETD) in 2001. VETD coordinates and supervises vocational education training and activities in Zanzibar.

The vocational education centers attract mainly school drop-outs in search of job skills. They also need improved sexual and reproductive health information on prevention of HIV/STIs and unwanted pregnancy, and access to services to avert risky sexual behaviors.

As VETD is quite new, this was an opportunity for the African Youth Alliance (AYA) to work with the VETD to integrate ASRH into the entire system of vocational institutes in Zanzibar. AYA is an adolescent sexual and reproductive health program. As a result of AYA’s partnership with VETD, the section on Role of Vocational Training Institutions in the Zanzibar Government Vocational Educational policy states that LPS is to be conducted in government and private VET institutions.

Currently, the VETD, as part of the MYLEWC is working to ensure that all vocational institutes incorporate LPS into their curricula as endorsed by the Government, which has been highly supportive of the project. The process of integrating the content has been intensive—with many stakeholders from all levels involved in meetings and discussions but is critical to institutionalizing programs and ensuring their sustainability. Furthermore, it is a critical approach to scaling-up programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a process for successfully partnering with government ministries to integrate and institutionalize content into existing programs.
• Describe an approach for reaching young people with both life and livelihood skills

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Communication

Related Web page: www.ayaonline.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.