International Youth Foundation (IYF) has a Track 1.0 multi-country cooperative agreement with USAID to support HIV/AIDS prevention through the Abstinence and Behavior Change for Youth (ABY) approach. In Zambia, IYF implements the Empowering Africa's Young People Initiative (EAYPI) project to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among youth aged 10 -25 years.

This activity supports both Zambia's National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework 2006-2010 and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) goals of HIV prevention. IYF and their partner organizations ensure linkages and synergy of their ABY activities to other HIV/AIDS stakeholders and implementers such as the Health Communication Partnership (#8905), Population Services International (#8925), PACT Y-Choices (#8922), and RAPIDS (#8945). IYF will also network with government structures at the district level, such as the District AIDS Task Forces.

EAYPI is an ongoing program implementing its activities through five sub-grantees. All five sub-grantees -Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS), Zambia Scouts Association (ZSA), Zambia Girls Guides Associations (ZGGA), Zambia Young Men's Christian Association (ZYWCA), and Zambia Young Women's Christian Association (ZYWCA)- received initial start-up grants in FY 2006 to begin activities. These sub-grantees will implement programs in different provinces, but will collaborate with each other at technical committee meetings to share lessons learned and ensure consistent messaging. Each sub-grantee held district sensitization meetings to introduce the project and its goals to potential adversaries. Each sub-grantee also selected project start-up sites in 11 districts within five provinces (North-Western, Southern, Copperbelt, Central, and Luapula), based on need and presence.

A qualitative assessment was undertaken in selected project sites to gauge the attitudes of young people, adults, and community leaders towards abstinence, faithfulness, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Findings from this assessment will be incorporated into future programming design, including message development.

In FY 2007, EAYPI will train 1,000 peer educators, 45 training of trainers (TOTs), and 85 trainers in ABY/HIV prevention messages and will reach 33,300 individuals (20,000 young people, including both in and out of school youth, and 13,300 adults) with ABY age-appropriate messages. The number of people reached will be achieved through community outreach activities including a combination of one-to-one contacts with peer educators, group activities involving in and out-of- school youth (led by peer educators), and community outreach events such as video shows and street theatre. Approximately 60 percent of the youth reached will be girls. Efforts will be made to use standardized training materials, including curriculum and tool kits, for all five sub-grantees to ensure consistency.

Sub-grants will be provided to the same five organizations for the duration of the project provided that performance and financial reports are acceptable. IYF works closely with the sub-grantees to build their capacity to develop appropriate activities which reflect both program objectives and targets and are achievable within a set budget. To ensure sustainability, each organization is encouraged to integrate project activities into existing programs and structures (e.g., youth camps, anti-AIDS clubs, Girl Guide patrols).

In FY 2007, IYF will undertake capacity assessments of all five sub-grantees to determine the issues facing each sub-grantee and to assess their future sustainability. A technical assistance plan will then be developed which will address identified weaknesses, particularly in terms of technical and management capacities. IYF will work closely with the sub-partners to ensure quality peer education trainings and ensure content is both consistent and appropriate for ABY. IYF will also work closely with the sub-grantees to assist them with budget development and financial management and reporting. On-site monitoring visits will be conducted regularly to provide assistance and ensure quality. Sub-partner staff will be trained in the management of peer education programs.

IYF's program will address the following four objectives: community mobilization and participation, information, education, and communication (IEC), local organization capacity development, and quality assurance and support supervision.

In FY 2007, IYF will scale-up skills-based HIV prevention education, especially for younger youth and girls. At least 1,000 peer educators will be trained and 20,000 youth will be reached, in and out of school, through a series of one-to-one contacts, guided group peer education interactions, and community outreaches. Training will encourage the practice of abstinence and fidelity, and secondary abstinence. Youth will also learn how to deal with peer pressure. Through this education program, youth will also be referred to available counseling and testing.

In addition, communities will be mobilized to establish a dialogue on health norms and risky behavior. Community outreach will be conducted in selected sites with a focus on identifying prevailing youth health norms, gender issues, and prevalent youth risky behaviors. The target audience includes adults (both men and women), volunteers of youth associations, parents and families, community leaders, and religious leaders.

IYF will also work with communities to advocate HIV prevention messages. Advocacy topics include: gender, HIV/AIDS mitigation, and the risky behaviors that predispose young people to HIV/AIDS. Existing in-country IEC/behavior change and communication (BCC) materials on AB will be disseminated during outreach events to ensure consistent AB messaging. Materials to be disseminated will come primarily from HCP (8905) and Population Service International/Society for Family Health (PSI/SFH's) (8925) delayed sexual debut campaign. IYF recently received a donation of 2000 posters from PSI in English, Nyanja and Bemba.

During FY 2007, IYF will work to strengthen the roles of parents and other influential adult in ABY. IYF is currently negotiating with PSI/SFH to roll out their parent-to-child communication program ‘Safe from Harm.' A trainer from PSI Washington will assist IYF with the training of a core set of trainers. These trainers will utilize PSI curriculum to strengthen activities in parent-to-child communications that help parents and adolescents better communicate their values, make healthy choices, and identify when and where to seek additional help.

To reduce the incidence of sexual coercion and exploitation of younger people, IYF will conduct advocacy and sensitization meetings in communities. The focus will be on male norms, challenging norms about masculinity, including the acceptance of early sexual activity, multiple sexual partners for boys and men, and transactional sex. This is a deliberate effort to impart positive gender sensitive attitudes, practices, and behaviors in male young people at an early age as a long- term strategy to address sexual violence and exploitation of young girls and women.

For monitoring and evaluation, IYF has developed a participatory M&E system that will be used to monitor progress towards achievements of the targets. Specifically, various community outreach reporting tools have been developed, including peer educator registers, training report forms, and partner progress report forms. Other forms of monitoring will be peer educator review meetings to discuss progress and difficulties of project implementation at community and peer educator levels.

To ensure sustainability, all activities are implemented through existing local IYF partners. In addition, technical support will be provided to build the capacity of local partners to implement ABY interventions.