Paris, September 27 {No.2000-92} - The inter-regional conference "A Cultural Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care" - organised by UNESCO in co-operation with the African Itinerant College for Culture and Development and the Kenyan National Commission for UNESCO - will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from October 2 to 4. The conference is part of the joint UNESCO/UNAIDS Project A Cultural Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care and its final recommendations - to be included in an Action Plan - are to serve as the basis for the development of new strategies.

The joint project was set up in May 1998 in response to a proposal made by UNESCO's Culture Sector to the UNAIDS Programme. In the first instance, the project sought to identify the interaction between culture and HIV/AIDS and to adjust prevention and care accordingly. Studies were carried out in countries in Southern Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia. Their findings were used to identify and formulate basic concepts, guidelines and methods for designing - in a cultural approach - strategies, policies and projects, in view of building more efficient, appropriate and sustainable action programmes, which will fully take into account the cultural references and resources of the various populations affected by HIV/AIDS.

The international combat against HIV/AIDS initially focused on health and medical care, within the limits of the epidemiological approach. It was only later that information, education and communication were used as instruments of prevention, though still with limited results. Even if prevention messages were received and intellectually understood, too often their content was not appropriated in depth and was consequently not followed by behavioural changes. The core assumption of the project is that greater efficiency and sustainability will be reached in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention and care through a better understanding of people's motivations and reservations.

The inter-regional conference will review the joint project, assess different aspects of the cultural approach and, above all, look closely at pilot projects and successful experiments that have been carried out on several continents by various organisations.