What is the status

What is the status
of mainstreaming?
P urpose
In many countries, education ministries will already have made some progress towards
the mainstreaming of HIV & AIDS and SRHR. A useful starting point in developing a strategy
for your agency to support mainstreaming processes is to assess the current situation.
This tool provides insight into what we can expect from HIV and AIDS mainstreaming. The tool
also contains a table that is structured along a ten-point plan for effective mainstreaming. In
an ideal situation, with HIV & AIDS and SRHR perfectly mainstreamed in education, we would
expect all of these ten areas to be comprehensively addressed. The specifi c priority actions
may vary by country, depending on the state of the epidemic, among others, but ideally most
of these would be in place.20
H o w t o u s e t h i s t o o l
For each of the ten areas in the table in this tool, make a judgement regarding whether, and to what
extent, this is an area that is being addressed, and its importance. Place a tick in the relevant column choosing
between ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘not applicable (N/A)’, ‘on-going’ and ‘planned’. If you are not sure about the status of
a particular area, then identify – in the last column on ‘possible action to be taken’ – how you will get this
information. Alternatively, you can also use this last column to identify what could be done (by your agency or
others) to move this issue along.
You can do this assessment by yourself, or you can use it as a tool for discussion with other partners (see
also Tool 7 – Stakeholder/partner analysis). This will be particularly useful in countries with low prevalence
levels where there may be areas of action that are less applicable and/or urgent.
You can also adapt this table to do the same assessment of how HIV and AIDS are being addressed by your
own agency or by the offi ce where you work.
You can use this tool as a baseline assessment to measure progress and to identify problematic areas.
In this case, keep the initial assessment and use this tool as a framework. It may also be interesting to
compare your assessment of progress with that of other colleagues (i.e. other development agencies, other
stakeholders and the Ministry of Education itself) and to discuss any important differences.