Commitment to Practice: A Playbook for Practitioners in HIV, Youth and Sport

November 26, 2007

A growing consensus exists within the HIV/AIDS field that prevention programs present great hope for stemming the rise of the epidemic among the 15-24 year old age group — an age group representing 40 percent of all new infections. This discourse is paralleled by an increasing need to translate recommendations for prevention programming into effective practice.

An increasing number of international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental organizations see sport-based programming as a highly effective approach to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Within the HIV/AIDS sector, there is growing recognition that Sport for Development (SfD) approaches can achieve significant HIV prevention goals. Additionally, within the Sport for Development field, there is also increasing recognition of its potential to develop effective youth HIV/AIDS programs.

This paper encourages practitioners to develop plus sport programs that have non-sport, HIV/AIDS-related outcomes as their primary objectives. Mercy Corps has utilized sport as a vehicle for complementing global humanitarian aid and development objectives for a number of years. However, only since 2006 has Mercy Corps looked to a sport-based approach to increase young people's HIV/AIDS knowledge and protective attitudes in a more rigorous way, coupled with an increased emphasis on comprehensive monitoring and evaluation.

The Yes To Soccer program in Liberia and the Sports for Peace and Life program in southern Sudan — implemented by Mercy Corps in partnership with Grassroot Soccer and supported by USAID and Nike Inc. — represent two examples of programs that used mentors to lead youth in a prevention program using a theory-based curriculum.

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