TITLE: IYF Abstinence and Behavior Change for Youth Project in Tanzania

With national HIV prevalence rates at 7%, Tanzania has a burden of disease biased towards young people.

The districts and administrative wards selected by IYF and partners with the District AIDS Committees,

have higher than national prevalence rates, are hard to reach or have large high-risk populations, and have

fewer interventions in place. IYF has a history of youth programming and its implementing partners have

national presence with huge youth membership, and enjoy government and community support across all

age groups. Structures and forums allow peer-peer, responsible adult-child, and mentoring relationships to

flourish.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: As of 31 March 2007, IYF provided technical and financial management assistance

to six organizations; adapted and developed training and BCC support materials; and supported project

entry meetings at national and district level. 925 peer educators and 66 Parent-to-Child (PTC) facilitators

have been trained and reached over 170,800 others through small groups, music, dance, and drama

outreach and community meetings.

ACTIVITIES: 1. Scale up skills-based HIV prevention education. The six partners will conduct knowledge,

attitude, behavior change, and skills training at national and district levels using harmonized training

materials. Targets include boys and girls both in and out of school. . Five thousand young people will be

targeted for training as peer educators. More than 50,000 additional youth will be reached through one-to-

one and group interactions. Drama groups will be oriented and trained on AB approaches. Twenty-four

music, dance and drama events are planned with 50 video shows, all designed to deliver AB focused BCC

messages, incorporate audience feedback, and provide opportunity for discussion. The dissemination of

age and culturally appropriate BCC materials mainly sourced from the Ministry of Health and Social

Welfare, TACAIDS, and other partners will be done in conjunction with outreach activities. Messages will

emphasize abstinence in prevention of HIV transmission, delay of sexual debut, promotion of ‘secondary

abstinence', skills development to help young people practice abstinence and life skills, and the

reduction/elimination of casual sex and multiple relationships. Other topics include self-risk perception,

gender, sexual and reproductive health, and substance abuse.

2. Stimulate community discourse on health norms and risky behavior. IYF will participate in national,

district, and community coordination committees and meetings. Influential faith and political leaders and

community resource individuals will participate in HIV prevention sensitization, mobilization, and advocacy.

IYF will reinforce the role of parents and key influencers and encourage partners to train adults and young

people on parent/adult-to-child/youth communication. Over 150 newly trained facilitators will reach adults in

the communities to create approachable parents/adults and increase their knowledge and confidence to act

as youth educators and mentors.

3. IYF will reduce the incidence of sexual coercion and exploitation through: working with sub-partners will

work with the community to identify and act on the risk areas, behaviors and prevalent vulnerabilities among

young people, including intergenerational and trans-generational sex, in the targeted districts; maintaining

linkages with available referral interventions for youth, including youth-friendly VCT centers, and advertise

these through peer-peer approaches, and outreach with influential leaders and community members. Since

IYF partners work at the community level a challenge in underserved areas is the unavailability of such

referral services. IYF will strengthen its partners' program, management, and financial systems in addition

to strengthening program quality, integration, and sustainability.

LINKAGES: IYF and implementing partners will collaborate with the public and private sector, and civil

society organizations: at national level participate in CCYP, AB and other prevention partners meetings; at

district level in the DAC and NGO forums; by working with DAC to identify villages/ wards for geographic

expansion after saturation of the current wards; and by strengthening linkages with available referral

interventions for youth including VCT. IYF will strengthen linkages with partners such as ADRA (to share

materials and synchronize work plans in Mwanza), AMREF (Mwanza: synchronize community mobile VCT

outreach services) World Vision (Kilimanjaro region: community mobilization and prevention), PSI (IEC/BCC

materials, use of mobile video units for community mobilization and outreach), and KIWOHEDE in Mbeya

for job skills referral training. IYF and partners will source materials from MOHSW and other NGO partners.

New materials will be developed only to implement the program where there are no alternative appropriate

materials,

CHECK BOXES: Activities will involve assessments of the implementing partners followed by targeted

trainings to strengthen their financial and programmatic management systems, policies and skills, and their

ability to deliver more efficiently and integrate the project activities into their mainstream work with youth as

a measure towards sustainability.

M&E: IYF has developed an M&E plan to guide data collection, entry, storage, reporting, quality, analysis,

use, and dissemination. Paper and electronic tools will be used to capture data. The tools of the paper-

based system will be the activity registers and the training report forms. These will track the number and

nature of trainings and outreach. They will be summed up monthly at district level and forwarded to the

partners' headquarters for compilation and conversion into electronic systems. At the headquarter level,

and with support from IYF and TACAIDS, the system will be linked to the national Tanzania Output

Monitoring System for non-medical HIV and AIDS interventions. Reports will be sent to IYF for further

analysis and dissemination. Revisions to the data collection tools will be completed as appropriate to

harmonize with new PEPFAR/OGAC guidance. A data quality audit/assessment is planned this year. M&E

support will be obtained from the field office specialist and from MEASURE and USAID. IYF will allocate

7% of FY 2008 funding to M&E.

SUSTAINAIBLITY: IYF will strengthen and improve the technical and management systems and capacity of

its implementing partners through workshops, on-site support, regular assessments, and reviews, providing

opportunities for trainings and sharing of best/promising practices. IYF will work with its partners to make

plans for sustainability after the project-funding period, and assist in the research and positioning for new

funding opportunities. We will continue working with the partners to improve on their volunteer

management and to integrate the HIV prevention activities into their regular programs with young people.