International Youth Foundation (IYF) has a Track 1.0 multi-country cooperative agreement 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

PEPFAR goals of HIV prevention. IYF and its partner organizations ensure linkages and synergy of their

ABY activities to other HIV/AIDS stakeholders and US Government (USG) partners such as the Health

Communication Partnership, Population Services International/Society for Family Health, PACT Y-Choices,

and RAPIDS. IYF also networks with government structures at the district level, such as the District AIDS

Task Forces.

IYF is an ongoing program implementing its activities through five sub-grantees. All five sub-grantees-

Zambia Red Cross Society, Zambia Scouts Association, Zambia Girls Guides Associations, Zambia Young

Men's Christian Association, and Zambia Young Women's Christian Association- received 12-month grants

in FY 2007 to begin activities. The sub-grantees implement activities in 11 districts of North-Western,

Southern, Copperbelt, Central, and Luapula Provinces; and the sub-grantees collaborate with each other

during technical committee meetings to share lessons learned and ensure consistent messaging.

IYF's program addresses four objectives: 1) community mobilization and participation; 2) information,

education, and communication (IEC); 3) local organization capacity development; and 4) quality assurance

and support supervision. In FY 2008, IYF will train 1,000 peer educators, 45 training of trainers (TOTs), and

85 trainers in ABY/HIV prevention messages. The trainings will encourage the practice of abstinence and

fidelity, and secondary abstinence. Youth will also learn how to handle peer pressure.

The five sub-grantees will use standardized training materials and tool kits. IYF will work closely with its sub

-partners to ensure that quality peer education training and consistent and appropriate ABY content are

used. The program will reach 38,400 individuals (22,700 in- and out-of-school youth, and 15,700 adults)

with ABY age-appropriate messages through a series of one-to-one contacts, guided group peer education

interactions, and community outreach. Approximately 60 percent of the youth reached will be girls. The

peer educators will also refer young people to available counseling and testing, and other HIV/AIDS related

services.

In addition, communities will be mobilized to establish 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 for HIV prevention messages to ensure that they are

culturally sensitive, especially on issues related to gender, discussing sexual matters with young people,

child sexual abuse, sexual behavioral patterns, including risky behaviors that predispose young people to

HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS mitigation. 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 and Population Service International/Society for Family

Health's delayed sexual debut campaign. IYF will continue to distribute the national Real Man, Real

Woman campaign posters (in English, Nyanja, and Bemba).

In FY 2008, IYF will continue to strengthen the roles of parents and other influential adults in ABY via the

parent-to-child communication program, ‘Safe from Harm.' In FY 2007, a PSI helped train a core set of

trainers from current sub-partner organizations. These trainers will utilize the 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.

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 program objectives, targets, and a set budget.

In FY 2008, IYF will continue to provide technical assistance to sub-grantees to build their technical and

program management capacities in writing proposal narratives, developing workplans and budgets, financial

management, monitoring and evaluation, 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. To enhance coordination, standardization, and learning, IYF will collaborate with

other USAID-supported ABY partners, through the USG AB partner working group.

For monitoring and evaluation, IYF has developed a participatory M&E system that will be used to monitor

progress towards achievement 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, where peer educators will be able to

discuss the progress and difficulties of project implementation with communities. IYF Plans to conduct end

of term evaluation in the first quarter of 2009.

To improve the sustainability of this programming, all activities are implemented through existing Zambian

IYF partners. In addition, technical support is provided to build also organizational and human capacity of

local partners to implement ABY interventions. Each partner organization is encouraged to integrate project

activities into existing programs and structures (e.g., youth camps, anti-AIDS clubs, and Girl Guide patrols).

In the last quarter of FY 2008, IYF in consultation with the sub-partners, will begin discussions on the

Activity Narrative: development of a graduation strategy to be accomplished by FY 2009.

Through a small grant of $100,000 from Johnson and Johnson IYF will provide peer educators with

incentives including T-shirts, bags, and a binder containing reporting tools. The grant will also support the

development of a toolkit for supervisors and a series of capacity building workshops for the partners.

All FY 2008 targets will be reached by September 30, 2009.