PEPFAR's annual planning process is done either at the country (COP) or regional level (ROP).
PEPFAR's programs are implemented through implementing partners who apply for funding based on PEPFAR's published Requests for Applications.
Since 2010, PEPFAR COPs have grouped implementing partners according to an organizational type. We have retroactively applied these classifications to earlier years in the database as well.
Also called "Strategic Areas", these are general areas of HIV programming. Each program area has several corresponding budget codes.
Specific areas of HIV programming. Budget Codes are the lowest level of spending data available.
Expenditure Program Areas track general areas of PEPFAR expenditure.
Expenditure Sub-Program Areas track more specific PEPFAR expenditures.
Object classes provide highly specific ways that implementing partners are spending PEPFAR funds on programming.
Cross-cutting attributions are areas of PEPFAR programming that contribute across several program areas. They contain limited indicative information related to aspects such as human resources, health infrastructure, or key populations programming. However, they represent only a small proportion of the total funds that PEPFAR allocates through the COP process. Additionally, they have changed significantly over the years. As such, analysis and interpretation of these data should be approached carefully. Learn more
Beneficiary Expenditure data identify how PEPFAR programming is targeted at reaching different populations.
Sub-Beneficiary Expenditure data highlight more specific populations targeted for HIV prevention and treatment interventions.
PEPFAR sets targets using the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) System - documentation for which can be found on PEPFAR's website at https://www.pepfar.gov/reports/guidance/. As with most data on this website, the targets here have been extracted from the COP documents. Targets are for the fiscal year following each COP year, such that selecting 2016 will access targets for FY2017. This feature is currently experimental and should be used for exploratory purposes only at present.
SUMMARY: AB activities will be carried out by local NGOs to support the Department of Education (DOE) in the prevention of HIV and AIDS, promoting positive healthy behavior among school children and providing care and support for students, the primary target population. Non-PEPFAR funds from USAID's Education Unit have been leveraged to support the DOE to strengthen its internal structures and systems to scale-up the Peer Education Care and Support (PECS) program nationally. The primary area of emphasis is training for peer student support groups.
BACKGROUND: The Quality Promotion and Development branch of the DOE is responsible for mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS within the education sector. This branch assures the quality and consistency of AB messages. The actual implementation of activities to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in schools is the responsibility of each of the nine provincial education departments.
Currently various uncoordinated peer education programs are offered in schools by several providers. HIV and AIDS and health education through the life skills programs, including age-appropriate AB messages, is an integral part of the school curriculum. However these programs have not started yielding results to counter the impact of the epidemic on the education system as some of the teachers are not fully trained and confident enough to guide and support students infected or affected by HIV and AIDS.
The DOE's HIV and AIDS PECS will be a new national intervention program aimed at building a coherent uniform response, in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS amongst students. This program received its first funding under PEPFAR in FY 2006. USAID, in consultation with National DOE, plans to award a contract in September 2006 to the Academy for Educational Development (AED). The contract is designed to address cross-sector issues affecting basic education and health. AED will serve as the prime contractor responsible for providing technical assistance services, training for DOE officials, and executing and awarding small grants to local NGOs to implement the initial phase of the PECS activity. Mechanisms for implementing the second phase of the PECS activity using FY 2007 funds will be directly through local NGOs, who will work with individual schools to strengthen peer education for HIV prevention.
The program is targeted at public primary and secondary school students, ages 14-19 years who are enrolled in Grades 8-12. The current Education Statistics in South Africa at a Glance collected in 2004 and published in December 2005 show that there are 11.8 million students, of which 4.1 million are enrolled in the targeted Grades 8-12. The PECS activity will be linked with the DOE's gender equity program which addresses gender-based violence, sexual harassment and abuse of students in schools.
ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS: Students will be encouraged to abstain from sexual activity as the best and only way to protect themselves from exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Funds will be used to teach students skills for practicing abstinence and to encourage delaying sex until marriage. Young people will also receive skills to adopt social and community norms that support delaying sex and skills to avoid cross-generational sex, transactional sex, rape and other gender-based violence (key legislative issue). The PECS activity will target members of Representative Councils for Learners (RCLs) in schools. RCLs are students elected in public schools by their peers from Grade 8 and higher to represent students' interests and also serve as members of the school governing bodies (parent and teachers associations). The activity will draw largely from the "Rutanang" (learning from one another) model, which includes a peer education implementation guide for schools in South Africa.
Activities will include the identification of 200 target schools through local education districts, and selection and training of 400 peer educators from the RCLs. RCLs will be trained through workshops to work with their peer students and will serve as peer educators in their schools, reaching approximately 12,000 students. RCLs will focus on encouraging dignity and self-worth, the importance of HIV counseling and testing, reduction of stigma and discrimination (key legislative issue), delivering education and training to promote responsible sexual behavior, improve knowledge about HIV and AIDS and the prevention of HIV and AIDS, as well as other health wellness factors. Both male and female RCLs will be recruited to participate in the program. RCLs will receive training
on how to address sexism, sexual harassment, and power relations between men and women, with the aim of improving gender equity (key legislative issue). This activity will encourage young people to be leaders and partners in the prevention of HIV and AIDS. RCLs will also be trained to talk and coach their peers, who already engage in sexual activities, to remain with one partner, and impart skills for negotiating protected sex with their partners.
Students in rural areas will be the key target group. A recent study on rural education reported that while the majority of school-going children in South Africa live in rural areas, these students still lack access to well-equipped and financially-resourced schools, nutritious food, health care education and support, physical education, entertainment resources and facilities. In addition, another study reported that teachers residing and teaching in rural schools had higher HIV prevalence than educators residing and teaching in urban schools. PECS will target rural schools in the provinces with high infection rates, including KwaZulu-Natal (21.8%), Mpumalanga (19.1%), Free State (12.4%) and North West (10.4%), and will be linked to the national schools' nutrition and life skills programs.
PECS implementation will also involve community-based organizations, school governing bodies and school management teams. PECS will source and utilize skills available from parents who are nurses, social workers, religious and traditional leaders to be actively involved in supporting their children to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. Traditionally parents do not educate their children about sex and methods to prevent infection from HIV and AIDS from an early age. PEPFAR resources will develop and improve training materials suitable for the targeted students and other interest groups. PECS will mobilize and support partnerships between schools, and relevant government departments, specifically social development and health to support cases that require referrals for condoms, and follow-on in case students require counseling and testing services.
Plus-up funds will continue work with the DOE, focusing on integrating gender issues across all peer education activities. Emphasis will be on addressing sexual harassment at school to curb gender-based violence. Plus up funds will target 6,000 students from selected rural schools in KZN - Pietermaritzburg Region. The funds will assist the DOE to scale up efforts in this province, which is hard hit by the pandemic.
USAID will award direct grants to local NGOs in FY 2008. NGOs will be identified competitively through an APS that will be announced during the second quarter of FY 2007. The second phase of PECS will scale up activity implementation using the foundation laid by AED and local NGOs developing monitoring and evaluation capacity in the first phase. The results of this activity will contribute to the PEPFAR's 2-7-10 goal of 7 million infections prevented, and will directly support the USG/SA Five-Year strategy in the area of abstinence and being faithful by improving A/B preventive behaviors among youth.
