University of Dar es Salaam

This 72-page report documents a study commissioned by Femina HIP in Tanzania that was designed to gain insight into youth's understanding, practices, feelings, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes with regard to multiple concurrent partnerships (MCPs). In preparation for a planned regional campaign called Onelove, the study aimed to assess youth's perception of risk with regard to MCP and HIV/AIDS, and to explore youth practices and motivations around MCPs. The study produced concrete recommendations for programme interventions.

The study involved focus groups and in-depth interviews with young men and women from one rural and one urban district. It looked at some of the reasons why young people engage in multiple and concurrent partnerships. These included the influence of sexual debut, desire for sexual gratification, sexual lust, mutual mistrust among sexual partners, cultural factors, and dissatisfaction in steady relationships. The study also looked at the types of risks that youth associate with MCP, and found that these vary between rural and urban participants as well as among males and females. Although HIV infection was mentioned as a risk, and knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention was generally high, the study found that youth were not connecting MCP with HIV/AIDS, and condom use was generally rare. According to the author, although some partners (especially in urban areas) may use condoms at the beginning of a partnership, condom use declines as the relationship progresses.

The study recommends that:

• Reproductive health programmes should reinforce the pattern of mutual mistrust reported in this study as basis for promoting condom use among youth.
• HIV and AIDS programmes should provide sexual guidance to youth before they attain puberty.
• Premarital romantic relationships should be recognised since they are likely to reduce (both in adolescence and in adulthood) mutual mistrust and may decrease the chances for youth engagement in MCPs and other risky behaviours.
• Educational interventions should be established to help young people engaged in MCPs make informed decisions on whether (or how) to continue with, or terminate, the relationship with a sexual partner.
• Misconceptions about condoms should be cleared and condoms should be promoted in multiple, concurrent relationships. This should go hand in hand with a call to reduce the number of multiple and concurrent sexual partners.
• In an effort to reduce MCPs and its negative impact on HIV/AIDS interventions, the report suggests that communication efforts related to sexuality should emphasise that the benefits of MCPs can be attained in steady relationships.
• For research, the study recommends further investigation into the nature and context of health seeking behaviour related to sexual problems such as sexual dissatisfaction or sexual dysfunction which are given as reason for engaging in MCPs. Also, further study may be required to establish prevalence of the reported MCP practices in a relatively larger geographical area.

The study concludes that it is not easy to come up with one message that addresses MCPs because the root causes leading to it are so diverse. Since MCP relations are a product of social relations, the challenge is how to address the factors leading to MCPs without conflicting with the social norms and values that guide sexual relations.

Onelove website on February 11 2009.