Dear Colleagues
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Please find attached, and below, an invitation to participate in an E-forum on
Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges” from
18 to 29 May 2009.
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We very much hope that you will be able to participate and look forward to your
contributions.
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Kind regards,

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Lynne Sergeant
UNESCO HIV and AIDS Education Clearinghouse
International Institute for Educational Planning
7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix
75116 Paris
France
Tel. +  33 (0)1 45 03 77 55
E-mail: l.sergeant@...
Website: http://hivaidsclearinghouse.unesco.org
E-mail:    hiv-aids-clearinghouse@...

Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges Online
Forum – 18-29 May 2009

UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the
UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education are organizing an E-Forum on
Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges” from
18 to 29 May 2009.
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This Forum aims to promote the exchange of views and experiences on the
contribution of teachers to HIV prevention and mitigation efforts and the impact
of the epidemic on teachers.
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The outcomes of the Forum will also directly feed into the Spring meeting of the
UNAIDS IATT on Education, hosted by Irish Aid in Limerick, Ireland in June 2009,
which has ‘Teachers and HIV & AIDS :Reviewing achievements, identifying
challenges’ as its Symposium theme. A report on the outcomes of the discussion
will also be available more widely on the IIEP’s HIV and AIDS Education
Clearinghouse following the Forum.
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The organizers are inviting a wide range of stakeholders to join the Forum
including educational planners, policy-makers, representatives of teachers’
unions, members of HIV-positive teacher networks, teachers and other education
sector staff, civil society stakeholders, donors, UNAIDS Cosponsors and other
multilateral agencies, and colleagues who work on HIV and AIDS responses in
other sectors.
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To join the Forum, please send an e-mail message to:
hiv-aids-clearinghouse@..., stating your name, title, organization
and nationality. We will then send you detailed instructions on how to access
the Forum and to contribute to the discussion.
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Please note that you can sign up anytime prior to or during the Forum but the
Forum will be active only from 18 May.
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For more information on the IATT Symposium in Ireland, please contact:
info-iatt@....
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Forum Theme and Sub-Topics for Discussion
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Teachers are instrumental to the achievement of the Education for All (EFA)
goals, and also have a critical role to play in school-based HIV prevention
efforts. However, evidence of effective teacher involvement in the HIV and AIDS
response is scattered and the lessons learnt, as well as their implications, are
yet to be
comprehensively fed back into joint efforts around EFA.
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This makes it opportune and important to review what progress has been made in
involving teachers in the HIV response and to consider how this can inform the
efforts to achieve EFA and the Millennium Development Goal to ‘halt and
reverse the spread of HIV’ by 2015.
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We know today that children and young people who go to school have better
opportunities in life and better protection against disease, including against
HIV. This protective benefit of education is particularly important for girls.
Yet many children do not have access to education, due to the teacher shortages
among other causes.

And even where teachers are in schools, issues of capacity play an enormous role
in the overall quality of the education provided, and in whether and how these
teachers will address HIV and AIDS.
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In many countries, curricula now include HIV- and AIDS-related content, often as
part of a broader focus on life skills and healthy living. Teachers are given an
important responsibility in ensuring that children and young people acquire
essential knowledge, skills and attitudes for prevention. In higher prevalence
settings, teachers are seen as pivotal in ensuring that pupils affected and
infected as a result of the epidemic have access to care and support.
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Without teachers the endeavour of providing EFA cannot be achieved. However,
teachers face challenges in playing the role that is attributed to them. These
challenges include the often difficult working environments (i.e. overcrowded
classrooms, lack of materials) and poor or inexistent training. In many contexts
– in particular in sub-Saharan Africa – teachers are themselves affected by
HIV and AIDS. Stigma and discrimination, gender inequity, concerns around
morality, cultural issues and relationships between teachers and students often
make the actual environment in which school-based HIV and AIDS education is
highly complex.
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The Forum will invite discussion on four interrelated sub-topics:
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1. Involving teachers in HIV prevention – policy and management implications
2. Coverage and content of pre- and in- service training for teachers
3. The role of teachers in child protection and promotion of safe and healthy
school environments
4. Supportive and enabling environments for teachers affected by HIV and AIDS
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All four sub-topics will be accessible over the course of the E-Forum.
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The Forum will be animated by e-moderators (IIEP and UNAIDS IATT Secretariat
staff), with daily syntheses of Forum discussions and commentary to guide
further discussion on these issues.