Just a thought on behaviour change

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

In all this talk about behaviour change, do we miss out on something? Behaviour

change seems to be a rather individual process, perhaps done with peer support.

But at the end it is the individual who has to change, and maintain that change

for the rest of life.

During a recent seminar in Togo, where the participants were Catholic Students,

cultural sexual practices were evoked. I have heard about these from African

women theologians as well, and not only about the deceased man's brother having

to have sex with the widow. There are others too, apparently.

Now, I think there are cultural sexual practices on all continents that should

be looked into. This is not a specific African phenomena; in some temples young

girls serve the priests sexually, in some ethnic groups men still need to give

semen to young boys etc.

In addition to the focus on individual behaviour change, it would be interesting

in all cultures just to ask some simple questions: who has sex with whom, why,

where, when and how?

Perhaps those questions are asked more frequently than I know about, but I have

a feeling they are important.

Seen the numbers of HIV positive people, and that fact that most transmissions

are sexual, we need to ask all relevant, and sometimes irrelevant, questions

about how we interact sexually.

All the best

¬

Calle Almedal

Senior Adviser

Partnerships Unit

UNAIDS

almedalc@...

www.unaids.org