Standards for Curriculum-Based Reproductive Health and HIV Education Programmes

This resource provides standards that can be used by curricular programme designers and educators to assess the quality of existing reproductive health (RH)/HIV education programmes. The standards are also useful for development or adaptation of new curricula. These standards are based on research commissioned by Family Health International (FHI)/YouthNet. In collecting data, the authors examined curricular effectiveness in causing measurable behavioural changes in sexual practices among youth. A second information source was an international conference at which information was drawn from discussions among researchers and practitioners about effective HIV/AIDS curricular materials in developing countries.

In the preface to the standards, there is information on major issues in RH/HIV education programming and on programme implementation. The central section entitled "Standards in Practice" provides the 24 standards that evolved from the research, each followed by implementation tips and examples for trainers and supervisors. The standards are divided into 3 subsections:

• Curriculum Development and Adaptation;
• Curricular Content and Approach; and
• Curriculum Implementation.

The annexes include characteristics of effective programmes and annotated resources.