National Sexuality Education Framework 2018

Abstract

Uganda’s Vision 2040 is “A transformed Ugandan Society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years” with the goal of changing the country from a predominantly low income to a competitive upper middle-income country within the period. In this aspiration, sustainable human resource is the single most important factor. In this regard, Uganda has an estimated population of 34,634,650, of which 33% of this population is made up of young people below the age of 19. This youthful population is a potential opportunity and asset for driving, accelerating and sustaining economic growth and transformation envisaged in the national vision. However, it also has some challenges as these people are at a stage in their lives when they are exploring and establishing their own individual and collective identity in society. Thus, they face many sexual and reproductive health challenges, spiritual and emotional challenges, conflicting cultural norms and practices, as well as, modernization challenges. In particular, the general sexual health indicators in the country show negative trends with rising early unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, increasing STI, rising child abuse including gender-based violence and sexual abuse. To-date, young people are continuously exposed to uncensored sexually explicit and obscene material which often portray inaccurate information about sex and sexuality. This is done through the internet, social media, mass media outlets such as newspapers, radio, TV, telecommunications, etc. There is also an increase in the consumption and abuse of alcohol, drugs and substances among the youths. Yet these behaviours predispose the youth to risky sexual activities that may lead them to teenage pregnancy, school dropout, acquisition of sexually transmitted infections including HIV and AIDS. In addition, young people, especially girls are exposed to sexual and gender-based violence including rape and sexually harassment. All this further underscore the need to equip the young people with appropriate knowledge, attitudes, values and skills to help safeguard their lives while they grow, develop, and learn so as to achieve their goals in life accordingly. In the past, sexuality education in Uganda was primarily handled by parents and relatives within the cultural setting of each family and community. This was reinforced by the teaching of the religious denomination that a family and child belonged to. With time, Government started including sexuality education in the school programmes, for instance, in the School Health Education Program (SHEP), the Health Education Network (HEN), Safeguard the Youth from AIDS (SYFA), and more recently, the “Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PIASCY) launched in 2003 and updated in 2015. Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) also joined in the provision of sexuality education in and outside the school. However, due to lack of an agreed national framework to guide the delivery of sexuality education in schools, Parliament recently requested Government to streamline this situation. It is with this background that the Ministry of Education and Sports with involvement of key stakeholders and partners have developed this draft national framework. In developing this national framework, the various sexuality education materials in Uganda and Africa and other international ones were reviewed. Views and inputs were also solicited from key stakeholders through meetings and discussions; regional and national workshops were also held. The findings were consolidated into a draft document, taking into consideration the views and opinions of the various categories of people consulted to achieve a consensus on the scope and content of sexuality education in the country.