It is not true that Uganda is emphasizing abstinence only. International
donors have influenced Uganda in the direction of not emphasizing
fidelity and abstinence, and promoting "safe sex."
The median age of sexual debut in Uganda has continued to increase,
especially for males. This is a rebuke to those who dismiss delay or
abstinence efforts as useless or worse. The prevailing view among Western
AIDS experts is that African teens will be sexually active from an early
age and nothing can change this, therefore condoms are the only realistic
solution. This is the same perspective that permeates the failure of
sex education in the United States.
It is now clear that Uganda's decline in HIV prevalence followed positive
changes in all three ABC behaviors:
- increased abstinence, including deferral
or greatly reduced levels of sexual activity by youth since the
late 1980s
- increased faithfulness and partner reduction behaviors
- and
increased condom use by casual partners
In Uganda's particular circumstances,
the most significant of these appear to be faithfulness or partner
reduction behaviors by Ugandan men and women, whose reported casual
sex encounters declined by well over 50 percent between 1989 and
1995. This conclusion is supported by comparisons with other African
countries.
In addition, abstinence, deferral of sexual activity by youth, and condom
use played substantial roles in reducing HIV prevalence. Uganda's successful
combination of ABC approaches appears rooted in a community-based national
response in which both the governmental and non-governmental sectors,
including faith-based organizations, succeeded at reaching different
population groups with different messages and interventions appropriate
to their need and ability to respond. Young persons who had not yet begun
to have sex were cautioned to wait. If a young person had just begun
to have sex, then he or she should return to abstinence. If a person
was already sexually active, he or she should adopt the practice referred
to locally as "zero grazing"—faithfulness in marriage or
partner reduction outside of marriage. For those who could not heed this
advice, free and affordable condoms were distributed and promoted.
^TOP UGANDA MODEL LESSONS >
American Medical Association
(AMA) Manual of Style: Borders T. HIV-AIDS Course, Chapter 4 – Sexuality
and Personal Relationships [Connexions Web site]. March 17, 2006. Available
at: http://cnx.org/content/m13340/1.3/.
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