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Cultural Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care

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In May 1998, UNESCO and UNAIDS began working to develop "a cultural approach" to HIV/AIDS prevention education and to apply it to strategies, policies, projects, and fieldwork around the world. This strategy is an effort to engage populations in the fight against HIV/AIDS on the basis of their own cultural references and resources. The project uses a variety of communication tools to exchange ideas about, and implement, non-formal and informal education strategies that are designed to sensitise people to HIV/AIDS and encourage changes in prevention behaviours.
Communication Strategies

Organisers are convinced that all projects, programmes, strategies, policies, communication initiatives, and educational tools have to be culturally appropriate to the population being addressed, in order to effectively encourage behaviour change. Furthermore, arts and creativity can be effective educational tools for HIV/AIDS prevention, provided that they are also culturally appropriate. Other criteria that inform this programme's strategies include:

  • respect for universally agreed-upon human rights
  • gender responsiveness ("This is indispensable because of the increased vulnerability of young girls and women to HIV/AIDS and because of the general "feminization" of the epidemic. Education of girls has to be the priority in order to transform relations between women and men at all levels of society and promote equal cultural patterns in gender relations as regards to HIV/AIDS prevention").
  • age responsiveness
  • inclusion of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) at every stage.

There are three main components to the project:

  1. Research (13 country-specific studies) and development of methodological and training tools (4 methodological handbooks)
    • research - During the initial research phase of the project 9 country-specific studies were carried out in 3 regions: Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe), Asia and the Pacific (Thailand and bordering countries), and the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica). The findings of these studies were discussed in three sub-regional workshops in Cuba, Zimbabwe and Thailand, respectively. The second phase began in October of 2000 with an inter-regional conference in Nairobi (Kenya), examining the results of the work carried out so far and identifying new perspectives. Since 2001 further country-specific research studies were completed (e.g., in Mozambique, Vietnam, Argentina, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia); sensitisation workshops took place in Cuba, Morocco, and Dakar.
    • handbook development - Within the Plan of Action approved in Nairobi, methodologies regarding the formulation of strategies, policies, and projects were defined. The Plan of Action underlines the importance of training and networking, as well as the necessity of adapting information, education, and communication (IEC) to the culture of each population being addressed. On that basis, 4 methodological handbooks regarding policy building, project design, fieldwork, and communication were elaborated. Between May of 2000 and August of 2001, four sub-regional training workshops were organised in Kampala (Uganda), Cairo (Egypt), Fez (Morocco), and Dakar (Senegal). A national workshop in India in August 2002 formulated the criteria for the elaboration of a manual adapted to the culture of the country. The Pilot Project of Kampala (Uganda) has allowed the applicability of the cultural approach methods to be tested in the field and to be adjusted accordingly.
  2. Thematic work on stigma and discrimination, migrant populations, indigenous communities and HIV/AIDS (e.g., a project based on the traditional medicine of the San population in South Africa), and the role of religious leaders and traditional healers in the fight against the epidemic. Click here to read about specific projects.
  3. Use of arts and creativity for HIV/AIDS prevention and care:
    • interactive theatre - UNESCO developed a manual for non-government organisations (NGOs) and youth theatre groups entitled AIDS and Theatre: How to use theatre to respond to HIV/AIDS; sensitisation and training workshops on this topic are anticipated
    • Hip Hop World Summit - an April 2005 Round Table and Workshop will be held at UNESCO headquarters focusing on the way in which this medium can directly reach youth and provoke thinking through its use of language, "making this artistic expression an ideal tool to deliver effective prevention messages on HIV/AIDS and have positive effects in the efforts to bring an end to the stigma and discrimination faced by people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS".
    • project using visual arts for people living with HIV/AIDS in Cambodia - together with partners including the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, various NGOs, and students of the Faculty of Plastics Arts, UNESCO is using traditional Cambodian theatre and graphic arts to focus on these themes: knowledge of HIV/AIDS; feelings, attitudes, and beliefs regarding PLWHA; living in a context of vulnerability or with the disease; and ways of passing prevention messages on to peers and youth in general. Workshops were held in which misconceptions about HIV/AIDS among young participants were discussed and corrected; the knowledge gained through group discussions was then represented in small groups using "edutainment" activities such as songs, role-play, drawings, comics, and slogans.
Development Issues

HIV/AIDS, Education.

Key Points

On the basis of the Mexico Declaration of 1982, culture is broadly understood within UNESCO to include: ways of life, traditions and beliefs, representations of health and disease, perceptions of life and death, sexual norms and practices, power and gender relations, family structures, languages and means of communication, as well as arts and creativity.

UNESCO explains that the difficulty in establishing effective HIV/AIDS programmes comes from a lack of openness, in many societies, regarding sexuality, male-female relationships, illness and death - all of which are taboo subjects deeply rooted in the cultures. Thus, UNESCO feels that "Understanding what motivates peoples' behaviours, knowing how to address these motivations appropriately, and taking into consideration peoples' cultures when developing programs addressing HIV/AIDS are essential to changing behaviours and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS."

This project takes culture into account at the following levels:

  • as context - an environment in which HIV/AIDS communication and prevention education takes place
  • as content - local cultural values and resources that can influence prevention education; culturally appropriate content of sensitisation messages
  • as a method of enabling people's participation, which can help ensure that HIV/AIDS prevention and care is embedded in local cultural contexts in a stimulating and accessible way.
Partners

UNESCO and UNAIDS.

Sources

UNESCO website