Posted 28 February 1999
UNAIDS' "Best Practice Collection" is a collection of documents and materials regarding HIV/AIDS programming information and advocacy. On this web site, access to press releases, fact sheets and the Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic issued in December 1997 are available. Among other things there are the following documents:
Points of View: This 8-page advocacy document, aimed primarily at journalists and community leaders, lists key facts and figures, outlines the challenges - including myths and misconceptions about the topic - and sets out ways of meeting those challenges.
Technical Update: Aimed primarily at managers of HIV/AIDS projects and programmes, provides a technical overview of the topic. It summarizes the main problems and challenges involved as well as the "best practice" responses, with examples.
Best Practice Case Studies: This series provides detailed examples of "best practice" in a specific country or community.
Key Materials: This set of materials - a maximum of 10 reports, articles, books, CDs, videos, whether authored outside or inside UNAIDS - represents up-to-date authoritative thinking on the topic, including best practice in the field. UNAIDS policy statements and reviews would normally be included here.
Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and two thirds of them are women. And they will live, as now, in more desperate poverty and poorer health than those who can read. They are the world's functional illiterates-and their numbers are growing. The total includes more than 130 million school age children, 73 million of them girls, who are growing up in the developing world without access to basic education. Millions of others languish in substandard schools where little learning takes place.
The State of the World's Children 1999 report tells the stories of a world community unwilling to accept the consequences of illiteracy or to be denied the human right to a quality education.
With the Convention on the rights of the Child as a guiding framework, governments, policy makers, educators, community leaders, parents and children themselves are advancing an education revolution. Their goal-Education for All. Theirs is a broad vision of education: as a human right and a force for social change; as the single most vital element in combating poverty, empowering women, safe-guarding children from exploitative and hazardous labour and sexual exploitation, promoting human rights and democracy, protecting the environment and controlling population growth. And as a path towards international peace and security. This report is on their efforts and their progress. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear: Education is the foundation of a free and fulfilled life. It is the right of all children and the obligation of all governments.
To order hard copies of the Report, contact your nearest UNICEF Field Office (if you are in a developing country) or your National Committee for UNICEF (if you are in an industrialized country).
There has been a distinct improvement in economic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, resulting mainly from improved policies in many countries in the region. The basic question now is whether these developments are temporary or whether they augur a fundamental change in the economic fortunes of Sub-Saharan Africa. The report argues that Sub-Saharan Africa is indeed at a turning point, because the external environment has changed. To meet the challenges of globalization and sustain the recent growth momentum, the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will need to combine policies aimed at macroeconomic stability with enduring structural reforms to encourage private investment.