UNAIDS - 29 September 2009

With arts and culture being one of the two pillars of the Jeux de la Francophonie, the Y-PEER network performed a dance and song written specifically by its members for these games. The lyrics include HIV prevention messages in Arabic, French and English, with the dancers forming a large red ribbon of red fabric at the end of the routine.

UNAIDS and our Cosponsors are committed to including young people's leadership as an integral part of national responses including empowering young people to prevent sexual and other transmission of HIV infection among their peers.

Culture and creative expression are powerful tools for mobilizing people of all ages and I applaud the Y-PEER.

Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director

"UNAIDS and our Cosponsors are committed to including young people's leadership as an integral part of national responses including empowering young people to prevent sexual and other transmission of HIV infection among their peers," said Mr Sidibe.

"This evening's performance was inspiring, putting these goals into action with young people creatively participating in the AIDS response in their own terms," said Mr Sidibe after the show. "Culture and creative expression are powerful tools for mobilizing people of all ages and I applaud the Y-PEER."

Y-PEER is a groundbreaking and comprehensive youth-to-youth initiative pioneered by UNFPA. The international network includes over 7000 young peer educators in Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. The network has adopted an approach of "edutainment"--combining education and entertainment-- to communicating HIV facts. Young people work together to raise awareness on sexual and reproductive health including the facts about sexually transmitted infection and HIV prevention.

The Lebanese Y-PEER network was launched in 2008 with the support of UNFPA and through 35 peer educators, the network has reached 1000 young people all over country in just three months.

With 7,400 new HIV infections daily worldwide and young people aged 15-24 accounting for 45% of these.

The Jeux de la Francophonie brings together sport and culture to foster dialogue and understanding among French speaking nations. It will run in Beirut until 6 October, bringing together 70 countries from all over the world.

Resources:

Policy and guidance:

Young people - Technical Policies of the UNAIDS Programme - http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/PolicyGuidance /Techpolicies/young_ppl_technical_policies.asp

HIV Prevention - Umbrella Policies of the UNAIDS Programme - http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/PolicyGuidance /UmbrellaPolicies/Prevention_Umbrella_Policies.asp

Cosponsors:

UNFPA

Partners:

Y-PEER

Feature stories:

Jeux de la Francophonie and UNAIDS: Partnering for young people (28 September 2009) - http://www.aegis.org/news/unaids/2009/UN090922.html

Publications:

Joint action for results: UNAIDS outcome framework, 2009 û 2011 (pdf, 388 Kb.) - http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/jc1713_joint_action_en.pdf

Sexual and reproductive health and HIV - Linkages: Evidence review and recommendations (pdf, 786 kb.) - http://data.unaids.org/pub/Agenda/2009/2009_linkages_evidence_rev iew_en.pdf

Preventing HIV/AIDS in young People: A systematic review of the evidence from developing countries UNAIDS Inter-agency Task Team on Young People (Report: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO_TRS_938_eng.pdf| 8 pages summary: http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2006/2006-WHOTR-938-8.pdf| 4 pages summary: http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2006/2006-WHOTR-938-4.pdf)
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