South Africa School-Based Sexuality and HIV Prevention Education Activity Quarterly Progress Report: Year 1 Quarter 4

The activity is led by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in collaboration with partners, including Society for Family Health (SFH), Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), and Mott MacDonald. The target population includes in-school adolescent girls and boys aged 13-19. Implementation of trainings, participation in DREAMS and provincial-level relationship building meetings, and planning for Year 2 activities were key activities during the reporting period (October to December 2015). Specifically, the activity focused on facilitating the first rollout of educator training on Scripted Lesson Plans (SLPs) for grades 7-9 in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal (KZN) following the pilot training and classroom visits. Additionally, training School Governing Bodies (SGBs) in Gert Sibande and Bohlabela districts, participating in the KZN DREAMS Program Implementation Meeting with partners, and attending the DREAMS launch in Gauteng were also conducted. The activity implementation focus is in five of the nine provinces, and in seven of the 27 identified priority districts for PEPFAR support in South Africa. These districts have the highest HIV infection rate and disease burden. The objectives for the school-based sexuality and HIV prevention activity are to increase the number of teachers qualified to teach sexuality education, strengthen the Department of Basic Education's (DBE) capacity to provide education and training for teachers, improve the quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs, increase DBE capacity to work in partnership with the Department of Health, and improve systems to evaluate the effectiveness of the sexuality and HIV education program. EDC and partners engaged relevant DBE national and provincial staff as well as other stakeholders to implement activities during the reporting period. For each of the activity objectives, the following activities were conducted: teacher training, where a total of 264 Life Orientation (LO) educators for Grades 7-9 were trained from the Mpumalanga and KZN provinces. Provincial and district department of education officials also attended the 5-day training sessions. In addition, training School Governing Bodies (SGBs) in Gert Sibande and Bohlabela districts, participating in the KZN DREAMS Program Implementation Meeting with partners, and attending the DREAMS launch in Gauteng were also conducted. The training was facilitated by EDC Master Trainers using Facilitator and Participants Manuals that had been revised after the pilot. The training aimed to equip educators with the skills and knowledge to teach sexuality education effectively. The activity also focused on strengthening DBE's capacity to provide education and training for teachers, improving the quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs, and increasing DBE capacity to work in partnership with the Department of Health. The activity implementation focus is in five of the nine provinces, and in seven of the 27 identified priority districts for PEPFAR support in South Africa. These districts have the highest HIV infection rate and disease burden. The activity aims to reduce new HIV infections in students and teachers by assisting the DBE to implement high-quality, evidence-informed sexuality and HIV prevention education programs. EDC will assume responsibility for the majority of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities, while Mott MacDonald will continue to provide support on fidelity of implementation. The activity will continue to focus on the five target districts, including Thabo Mofutsanyane in the Free State, Johannesburg West in the City of Johannesburg in Gauteng, UThungulu, eThekwini - Umlazi and Pinetown in KwaZulu Natal, Ehlanzeni and Gert Sibande in Mpumalanga, and City of Cape Town in the Metro North in the Western Cape.