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Right
to Know Initiative – Global
http://www.comminit.com/
Summary
The Right to Know (RTK) Initiative is a global youth
communication and outreach initiative designed to address the
need for information, knowledge, and understanding of HIV/AIDS
and related issues among young people around the world. Right
to Know works closely with young people in an effort to
transform information on HIV/AIDS and health into knowledge
that will hopefully stay with young people throughout their
lives. The initiative is based on the belief that young people
need to know about the facts on HIV/AIDS and the ways to
protect themselves and their peers. Essentially, they have a
"right to know." However, all too few young people
have access to this crucial information, particularly very
vulnerable and hard-to-reach adolescents. UNICEF, along with
UNFPA, WHO, UNESCO, and the World Bank, has identified sets of
basic facts (incorporated into a guidebook known as the Facts)
that constitute the minimum that every adolescent has a right
to know. Right to Know is developing research-based national
communication packages to convey these facts and work to
assist youth in making informed decisions to prevent HIV
infection and lead healthy lives. Also, the initiative creates
links between information, life skills, youth-friendly
services, and a supportive environment - a four-pronged
strategy that has been shown to be necessary for fighting
HIV/AIDS among young people.
Fourteen countries are currently participating in the RTK
initiative: Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Cote
d'Ivoire, FR
Yugoslavia, FYR
Macedonia, Ghana,
Guatemala,
Haiti,
India,
Jamaica,
Malawi,
Namibia,
Nigeria,
Thailand,
and Zambia.
While the initiative will take a different form in every
country depending on each country's specific needs, several
themes stand out and define the overall programme. These
themes are:
- the centrality of youth participation
- positive, relevant messages as part of a
communication strategy
- an emphasis on life skills through linkages with
UNICEF and other organisational programmes
- the promotion of youth-friendly services through
partnerships, and
- youth mobilisation and advocacy to help create
supportive environments.
RTK is being implemented in three phases. During the first
phase, young people and key players from civil society, the
United Nations, and government are brought together to define
the objectives of RTK in each country. Phase II, known as the
Participatory Action Research (PAR) phase, identifies gaps and
misperceptions in the existing framework of understanding
among young people. The research will lead to country-adapted
Facts guidelines that are most suited to the particular
country context. PAR also helps to determine the most
effective ways in each country to make use of the Facts and to
share messages about HIV prevention with young people. Phase 2
will be followed by intensive communication strategies
designed to fit to the life contexts of young people in the
various countries (Phase 3). An important focus of RTK is
developing RTK partnerships between youth, UN agencies, NGOs,
and other organisations, as well as strengthening their
capacity to plan and implement communication programmes.
Main Communication Strategies
Strategies will include the use of multimedia (television,
radio, print, theatre) most popular among young people as well
as interpersonal communication. These will be complemented by
advocacy work and social mobilisation efforts, also tailored
to be effective in every country. In each country the strategy
will consist of at least the following components:
- Programme communication: the consultative process
of addressing knowledge, skills, and practices of specific
groups of programme participants in order to develop and
sustain those behaviours for prevention of HIV/AIDS and
for optimum well-being of young people.
- Advocacy: organisation and formulation of
information to bring HIV/AIDS and other related adolescent
issues and problems into the public domain for discussion
and action.
- Social mobilisation: bringing together all the
intersectoral social partners to raise demand for and
sustain progress toward the project goal. This will
involve enlisting the participation of communities, social
and religious groups, youth networks, and other
institutions through dialogue, entertainment events,
information dissemination, rallies, or whatever methods
are deemed appropriate in the respective country.
- Linkages to ensure that other programme elements
necessary for a comprehensive approach are in place:
- life-skills-based
education for in-school and out-of-school youth
- livelihood
skills development
- youth-friendly
services, including peer counseling and access to
condoms.
A
global advocacy campaign is also being developed to bring the
messages and methods of Right to Know to the global level. By
engaging world leaders and mobilising widespread support, the
global campaign will help put young people on government
agendas, help increase funding for HIV/AIDS programmes, forge
global and cross-sectoral alliances, and strengthen the global
effort to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS among young people.
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS, Youth Health, Development and Protection, Substance
Abuse, Gender, Sexuality, Life Skills, Knowledge,
Participation, Children, Education, Health, Population,
Rights, Technology, Women, Youth.
Key Points
In recent years, communities across the world have faced a
disturbing fact: AIDS has become a disease of the young. Young
people aged 15 to 24 are now the fastest growing group of AIDS
victims, accounting for half of all new infections worldwide.
However, these very same people hold the key to stopping the
AIDS pandemic. UNICEF experience has shown that HIV/AIDS
programmes that focus on youth, especially programmes that
utilise a participatory approach, have a better chance of
succeeding. By making young people key players in the design,
evaluation, and implementation of HIV/AIDS communication
strategies, the Right to Know initiative aims to develop
effective ways to provide young people information about
HIV/AIDS, and help them reduce their risk of HIV infection.
Making use of innovative new methods in social research, the
initiative is built on a foundation of youth participation.
The initiative places the key information-gathering efforts of
the programme in each country in the hands of young people,
organised into research teams and assisted by UNICEF and
outside experts. This approach includes the following
components:
- Ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and efficacy:
Strong youth participation will facilitate this. The Right
to Know initiative operates based on what young people
know and how they are influenced and motivated.
- Empowering young people to speak for themselves.
- Building capacity among young people: Specialised
training in research methods, multimedia documentation,
project planning and management, and other skills will
stay with the youth researchers after they complete their
service to the programme.
- Generating youth action and empowerment: The
simple act of inclusion sends a clear message of pride and
self-confidence to young people in every programme
country.
- Placing young people in the driver's seat as
active creators of knowledge and information instills a
sense of ownership in every young person involved in the
initiative.
- Bringing adults into the programme: Youth
participation also depends on the parents, teachers,
religious leaders, and other adults whose influences shape
the lives of young people.
- Partners
Other partners include young people
themselves, youth groups, civil society organisations such
as churches, parent and teacher organisations, and
community leaders. In addition, UN and governmental and
non-governmental agencies are included in RTK national
planning and implementation.
For more information, contact:
Jude-Marie Alexis
Manager, "Right to Know" Country Initiatives
UNICEF HQ/NY
3 UN Plaza, Rm. 854
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel.: 212-326-7000
jmalexis@unicef.org
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