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 Full Title Encouraging Safe Sexual Practices Among Youth Using Rewards: A Randomised trial in the Kilombero /Ulanga Districts. 

 Short Title Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Project

 Project Leader Rose Nathan

 Description In Tanzania, the awareness of HIV prevention methods in the youth population is high but has not fully translated into safer sexual behaviours. Almost 80% of young people know that using condoms reduces the risk of contracting HIV, but fewer than half reported using a condom the last time they had sex (DHS and ORC Macro, 2005).

Psycho-social interventions, such as peer-to-peer counselling, have had a significant and measurable impact on unsafe behaviours, but have not been shown to be cost-effective as a strategy for reaching young people (Hutton et al., 2003). These types of interventions may be costly when brought to scale due to the emphasis on an individualized or small group therapy approach, although there has been some experimentation with more easily scalable, community-based approaches. A multicountry trial of community-based VCT approach is currently underway (Coates and Szekeres, 2006).

Many public health experts have argued that a more aggressive approach to behaviour change in Africa is needed, pointing out that “instances where HIV infections appears to be falling, linked to successful programmes aimed at changing behaviour, notably in Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe” (Jack, 2007). New, innovative prevention programs are particularly needed to reduce transmission among young people in their child-bearing years who are becoming or who have recently become sexually active. Of the 4.3 million new HIV infections that occur each year globally, 80 percent occur among this age group.

Limited empirical evidence suggests that economic interventions in combination with psycho-social support have greater impact than either type of intervention taken singly.


The primary aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of using of a combined CCT/counselling intervention to prevent HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) among youth and young people.


Specific objectives of the study include;

  

1. To evaluate the impact of the combined CCT/ counselling intervention during the intervention period (immediate and short-term effects) on STI incidence overall and by specific subgroups (to identify responsiveness in different potential target groups).

2. Examine the long-term effects of the intervention – and its withdrawal – with final round of STI testing and surveying in the same population 12-months after the intervention has ended

3. Compare the impact of the CCT intervention in the high-value cash transfer arm to that in the low-value cash transfer arm


 Collaborators William Dow                        University of California - Berkeley

Damien de Walque               World Bank                  

 Source of funding World Bank

Hewlett Foundation/Population Research Bureau

 Start Date February 2008                End Date     August 2011

     

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