This Sourcebook aims to support efforts by countries to strengthen the role of the education sector in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. It was developed in response to numerous requests for a simple forum to help countries share their practical experiences of designing and implementing programs that are targeted at school-age children. The Sourcebook seeks to fulfil this role by providing concise summaries of programs, using a standard format that highlights the main elements of the programs and makes it easier to compare the programs with each other. For many countries, HIV/AIDS is a newly recognized challenge to the education sector, and as a result, very few programs have been in place long enough to be formally evaluated. Rather than delaying access to program information until success was confirmed, the Sourcebook combines two approaches to offer some assurance of program quality. First, the programs were selected by national experts because they show promise where they have been implemented. Second, all the programs were benchmarked against criteria that the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) for Education considers to be sound programming practice. This provides a framework for exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the program design, pending more conclusive evaluation. The Sourcebook has been developed rapidly to fill an important gap in information on programming within the education sector. It is a work in progress, and the content will be expanded and refined in use.
