PRESS BRIEFING IN ADVANCE OF WORLD AIDS DAY

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING IN ADVANCE OF WORLD AIDS DAY

New values, including shared responsibility between men and women, needed to be internalized to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, Michael Sinclair, a representative of the South African organization loveLife, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

The briefing was held in advance of tomorrow's observance of World Aids Day at the United Nations, organized by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Thérèse Gastaut, Director of DPI’s Public Affairs Division, said that the theme this year would be "Men Make a Difference". A town hall meeting on that theme, moderated by Riz Khan of CNN, would feature a range of important speakers from the United Nations and civil society, and would highlight the work of the South African group. The event would also serve to publicize the special General Assembly session on AIDS to be held this coming June.

Elhadj Sy, the New York representative of UNAIDS, said that in considering the role of men in HIV prevention one could recommend particular actions. One could also take up some of the fundamental social cultural dynamics that shaped attitudes and see how men could be empowered. Actions included measures that men could take to protect themselves and their loved ones, along with greater participation in the health care of the family. The attitudes that needed to be looked at were those that involved, for example, risk-taking and the perception of masculinity by men and women in general, especially as regarded safe sexual behaviour.

Behavioural change was difficult, said Mr. Sinclair, and changes in sexual behaviour were the most difficult to effect. They had to be internalized along with new values, and that required a long-term approach. The "wear-a-condom- or-die" approach had not worked. There could be high awareness of the dangers of AIDS without the necessary changes in lifestyle.

LoveLife was a huge and innovative non-governmental effort to tackle behavioural change in a region where there was both high awareness and continuing high rates of infection, he said. One of the highest rates of infection in South Africa was among 15- to 20-year olds and, therefore, loveLife targeted 12- to 17-year olds. It was appropriate that five South Africans representing loveLife would be at the World Aids Day events, as South Africa was at the epicentre of the HIV pandemic. He then introduced two of those representatives.

Eric Mandla Sibeko, National Advisory Board of loveLife, said that loveLife had created a kind of brand identity for sexual health, which aimed to become as familiar as Nike or Levis. It promoted a new lifestyle for youth that associated the achievement of aspirations with healthy sexual behaviour. The brand identity was omnipresent in the country -- on billboards, magazines, and radio. His presence on the Board resulted from the group's determination to involve young people at all levels, so that the programmes dealt with the reality of modern adolescent life.

World AIDS Day Briefing - 2 - 30 November 2000

Mr. Sibeko said that, at the World Aids event, loveLife would bring the message that HIV and AIDS prevention programmes had to use the latest media available in an effective way. LoveLife could be perceived as the coolest brand in South Africa; it was a cool thing to live safely and be able to achieve what one wanted.

Another loveLife representative, David Schneider, said that loveLife also sparked dialogue about healthy sexual lifestyles. He said he had been featured in a campaign called "Love them enough to talk about sex".

A correspondent asked what else needed to be done to lower incidence rates, if the current awareness programmes were not lowering them.

Mr. Sy said that he would be cautious in saying that stabilization and lowered rates were only due to the fact that more people were falling sick and dying. That was part of the equation, but so were prevention campaigns that had worked, care programmes that had been put in place, and public leaders who had been speaking out for behavioural change. A realistic short to mid-term strategy, he said, would be awareness raising, behaviour change, along with changing attitudes that would support behaviour change. In the longer term, inequities needed to be reduced and resources provided that would reduce the vulnerability of the relevant populations.

Mr. Sinclair added that the cool image of the loveLife campaign was only a hook to get people to buy into a product. That product was the public health service, which loveLife was also transforming, in order to make it adolescent- friendly, as part of a massive public health campaign.

Another correspondent asked about the cost of the loveLife programme and how its effectiveness was being evaluated.

Mr. Sinclair replied that it cost roughly $30 million per year. Its effectiveness was being measured through ongoing evaluation and monitoring on various levels and would consider awareness, as well as hard results in clinic attendance, condom usage, prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases and rates of teenage pregnancy. In its first year of operation, awareness was high, with 90 per cent recognition and more than 300,000 calls a month to its help line. It was far too early to measure any impact on behaviour or health.

Correspondents also asked about the similarities of the AIDS challenge in Africa, the United States, and elsewhere, and the general applicability of the loveLife approach.

Mr. Sy said that all vulnerable populations shared some relevant issues. There were initiatives similar to that of loveLife all over Africa and in the United States that used the media to reach out to young people, but the scope and comprehensiveness of loveLife was what made it outstanding. Mr. Sinclair added that loveLife functioned as a national framework for the hundreds of organizations working in the field of AIDS prevention. The funders of loveLife, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, were willing to work with the United States Government, as well to impress the need for an integrated, broad array of services.

* *** *