Levers of Success: Case Studies of National Sexuality Education Programmes

"Effective sexuality education provides young people with age-appropriate, culturally relevant and scientifically accurate information. It also provides young people with structured opportunities to explore attitudes and values and to practise the skills they will need to be able to make informed decisions about their sexual lives. Sexuality education is an essential element of HIV prevention..."

From the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this report identifies a range of factors that can contribute to the successful development and implementation of sexuality education in the school setting at regional, country, or local levels. It draws from research: country experience in China, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam, and regional experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. The case studies are presented in alphabetical order by country name in the following format: Background, Response, Challenges, and Levers of Success. The studies are based upon longer versions that were prepared by local consultants who reviewed available literature and conducted interviews with key informants and local stakeholders.

Individually and together, the examples in this document indicate the following lessons:

• "Sexuality education is a sensitive issue and is most likely to be effectively introduced and implemented when sufficient political will exists to support it;
• Even in settings that are socially and culturally conservative and where discussion of sexual matters has traditionally been taboo, it is possible to introduce sexuality education;
• The name and delivery mechanisms for sexuality education (e.g. formal, non-formal, extra-curricular, teacher-led, youth-led) need to be selected with care;
• It is important to be sensitive to community concerns, but it is also important to ensure that programmes retain key elements of effectiveness;
• A considerable amount of international experience already exists in terms of teacher training and curriculum and materials development. International organizations can facilitate the sharing of this experience and its application and adaptation to different social and cultural settings;
• Inevitably, difficulties encountered in the implementation of sexuality education will reflect broader systemic problems within the education sector: limited resources; teachers who are over-burdened and insufficiently trained and supported; crowded curricula that inevitably lead to the prioritization of subjects that are examined over those that are not;
• When necessary, governments can be held to account in relation to their responsibilities as signatories to relevant international agreements. However, it is also important, where feasible, to avoid making sexuality education a...vehicle through which the respective agendas of a range of competing political interest groups are pursued. It will be young people who pay the price."

Levers of success have been found to include:

• Commitment to addressing both HIV and AIDS and sexuality education, reflected in a favourable policy context;
• A tradition of addressing sexuality, however tentatively, within the education system;
• Preparatory sensitisation for head teachers, teachers, and community members;
• Partnerships (and formal mechanisms for these), for example, between education and health ministries and between state and civil society organisations (CSOs);
• Organisations and groups that represent and contribute young people's perspectives;
• Collaborative processes of curriculum review;
• CSOs willing to promote the cause of comprehensive sexuality education, even in the face of considerable opposition;
• Identification and active involvement of "allies" among decision-makers;
• Support for in-service training for teachers and for the dissemination of appropriate materials;
• Availability of appropriate technical support (such as from United Nations (UN) partners and international non-governmental bodies), for example in relation to: sensitisation of decision-makers; promoting participatory learning methods by teachers; and engagement in international networks and meetings;
• Involvement of young people in sensitising parents, teachers, and decision-makers;
• Opportunities for decision-makers to participate in school-based sexuality education through observation and dialogue with teachers and students;
• Removal of specific barriers to comprehensive sexuality education, such as the withdrawal of homophobic teaching material; and
• Willingness to resort to international policy and legal bodies.