In Zambia,32 the International HIV/AIDS Alliance

In Zambia,32 the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) and the Ministry
of Education are working with teachers and pupils in Grades Four to Nine33 in twenty basic schools to analyse why
schools are high-risk places for HIV transmission and unintended pregnancy and to identify what can be done about
it. Teachers have been engaged in a participatory process to explore their own experience and concerns regarding
HIV, reproduction, gender, sexuality, pleasure and harm and their role in the creation of sexual risk and its prevention
in the school. Teachers have received two specifi c training inputs. The fi rst helped them to explore their own
attitudes and values while the second focused on the development of skills and materials. Teachers acknowledged
the problem of sexual abuse and made plans to address it. They then facilitated a participatory assessment with
pupils, using many of the same tools to analyse the situation with them and elicit their ideas on how to respond.
This produced a wealth of material that revealed high levels of sexual activity and sexual abuse and fed into the
development of an initial set of lessons aimed at the creation of a safe environment for teaching about sex and
relationships. Working in partnership with the Curriculum Development Centre and Ministry of Education, a set of
materials was developed. This included a curriculum, two manuals for teacher training and three books for pupils.
The successful development of these kinds of approaches to tackling vulnerability is likely to require long-term planning
and investment in human and material resources together with innovative evaluation methodologies.
Recognising that knowledge alone is usually insuffi cient to bring about behaviour change, the concept of life skills
has gained popularity and is another approach aimed at reducing underlying vulnerability. Rooted in North American
and European psychology, the notion of life skills is based upon the assumption that unproductive (or completely
absent) behaviours can be replaced with specifi c behavioural skills such as decision-making, communication, or
condom use and that these can be acquired through structured learning.
With a broad generic (i.e. non-sexual) orientation, the adoption of life skills curricula proved popular in settings
where opposition to sex education was likely. So much so that it was incorporated into Article 53 of the United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS (UNGASS) Declaration, which requires that young
people have access to information and education necessary: ‘to develop the life skills required to reduce their vulnerability
to HIV infection’. Relevant skills include critical thinking and decision-making, for example, about initiating
or delaying sexual intercourse or negotiating safer sex, including condom use.
While the title ‘life skills’, without reference to either sex or HIV, may make it uncontroversial and politically acceptable,
lack of clarity in terms of defi nition and the absence of an explicit theoretical and evidence base, may leave life
skills open to the broadest interpretation, with the possible result that mention of both sex and HIV prevention are
removed. Also, too narrow a focus upon the level of the individual without consideration of broader contexts and
power relations within these will affect the extent to which young people will be able to utilise various life skills.