IRIN PlusNews

This article, published by PlusNews, discusses the OneLove and "Scrutinise" campaigns in South Africa, and argues that these campaigns may be more successful because of the degree of partnership and consistency of their messages. According to the article, South Africa's previous prevention efforts have been fragmented due to a lack of leadership on HIV/AIDS from government, and this led to various individualised efforts that failed to slow the country's high infection rate. The report states that successful prevention responses in other countries, such as Uganda's "zero-grazing" campaign, have been characterised by a unified approach with a single, clear message. The OneLove campaign brings together players from government, civil society, traditional and religious leadership, business, and academia. Monthly meetings aim to ensure that the partners use consistent messaging and do not duplicate efforts.

According to the article, previous prevention campaigns have been fairly successful at convincing people to use condoms when they have casual sex, but have failed to persuade them to use protection consistently in longer-term relationships. Researchers believe this is particularly devastating in Southern Africa, where it is more common for people to have two or more partners at the same time, allowing HIV to spread rapidly through overlapping sexual networks.

The Scrutinise campaign, which began in 2008, uses hip animated characters to urge youth to examine their HIV risk behaviours, particularly around multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP), which are a key driver of the region's HIV epidemic. The OneLove campaign is a regional, 5-year initiative spanning nine countries. In South Africa the Soul City soap opera, which also has a strong MCP storyline, is central to the campaign. The main storyline deals with a married man, Zimele, who has an affair with a 19-year old girl, Lulu, who also has a boyfriend her own age. Zimele is influenced by his friends, who regard having girlfriends on the side as normal male behaviour, while Lulu is influenced by financial pressures. According to the article, the show is broadcast to approximately 6 million viewers, and is followed the next day by radio call-in shows across the country that discuss the previous night's episode. Campaign organisers hope that along with reducing new HIV infections, the show will help reverse the social acceptability of MCP.

The article concludes that although the Scrutinise and OneLove campaigns have raised the bar for prevention efforts, the bar will continue to rise, and future campaigns will need to respond more quickly to the latest evidence on what is driving infections.

PlusNews, March 6 2009.