Disappointing results from two peer education projects in southern Africa

via aidsmap, by Roger Pebody

Two large HIV prevention programmes that recruited people to educate their friends and classmates have both failed to make an impact on sexual behaviour, researchers report in two separate articles published online ahead of print in AIDS and Behavior.

A peer education programme for 15 and 16 year old school students in South Africa did not have any effect on students’ age of sexual debut or their use of condoms. In Zimbabwe, a programme which trained male customers of beer halls to act as peer educators with their friends did not have an effect on how often men used condoms or how many sexual partners they had.

Whereas there are signs that there were problems with the implementation of the schools programme, the beer hall intervention appears to have been well-delivered. Nonetheless the programme seems to have been unable to make an impact in a context of deep-rooted social problems and tensions.

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