HHD Global Programs Briefs US Senate on Need for HIV/AIDS Education

(March, 2003) Scott Pulizzi, Deputy Director for HHD Global Programs at Education Development Center, presented at a Senate briefing on HIV/AIDS education on March 10, 2003. The briefing, co-sponsored by the Basic Education Coalition and the Global Health Council, included speakers from The World Bank and Save the Children.

Stressing the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on education systems worldwide, Pulizzi urged a greater role of education in controlling the pandemic – particularly education that helps both students and

teachers make healthy choices. “To fight HIV/AIDS globally, we need to invest in skills-based health education,” said Pulizzi. “We need strategies to create safe and supportive environments for healthy decision making, including measures to prevent sexual violence. We also need better capacity-building measures that help teachers present educational material in the classroom and advocate for effective policies in their countries.”

By the end of 2002, an estimated 42 million people were living with HIV/AIDS, including 3.2 million children. Half of the world’s 15,000 daily new infections occur among 15- to 24-year-olds. HIV/AIDS has harmed educational systems in many countries—killing teachers, eroding educational quality, drying up countries’ pool of skilled workers, and increasing educational costs. Educators fear that the pandemic will impair the goals of Education for All, an international movement started in 1990 to ensure primary education for all children and massively reduce adult illiteracy.

Pulizzi described several HHD projects to develop HIV/AIDS prevention curricula for use in developing countries. With funding from the World Health Organization, HHD Global Programs is working closely with Education International, a federation of teacher unions, to help teacher unions in Haiti and 11 African countries conduct HIV/AIDS prevention. The initiative will help teachers protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs); advocate for school-based HIV prevention programs and policies; and use skills-based health education in the classroom to prevent HIV/AIDS and other STIs among students.

HHD Global Programs is also assisting the ministries of health and education in Botswana, a country with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, to develop an HIV prevention curriculum that will reach all primary and secondary students in the country.