Schools offer sexuality education through various types of classes. Other sources for sex education include parents, peer educators, faith-based settings, and programs for out-of-school youth. 

Sexuality and family life education helps prepare young people for the transition to adulthood. In-school programs can result in positive behavior changes, but programs vary widely and questions about best models need more attention. For more information, click on these:

• Literature Reviews 
• Guides and Tools
• Curricula and Links to More Resources
• School-based Programs
  Literature reviews, policy briefs, and curricula
• Parents
  Programs that involve parents and related materials
• Teacher Training
  "Best practices" curricula and programs for training primary and secondary school teachers.

Aspects of education on sexuality are incorporated into various types of programs, called family life skills or family life education, or sometimes shortened simply to sex education. Sex education takes place in many, often overlapping, contexts. The major settings are schools, out-of-school and faith-based programs, programs for parents, and peer education. Sex education can result in young adults delaying first intercourse or, if they are already sexually active, using contraception or reducing their risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or HIV. Almost all studies conclude that sex education does not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity.

Literature Reviews

• Life Skills and HIV Education Curricula in Africa: Methods and Evaluation (USAID, 2003) This review points out that while many HIV education programs have been implemented, few have been rigorously evaluated. Even so, a number of findings and lessons learned can help guide activities and projects.

Guides and Tools

• Quality Education and HIV&AIDS (PDF, 4.54 MB), a publication from the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education, presents a framework for quality education that demonstrates how education systems can and must change in their analysis and conduct in relation to HIV and AIDS. It summarizes applications of how education has responded to the pandemic from a quality perspective and promotes practical and strategic actions in support of quality education. Print copies are available free of charge and can be ordered by writing to info-iatt@unesco.org.

• The AIDS Badge Curriculum (WAGGS), targeted to Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, is a 28-page curriculum designed to award badges at three levels. Each level has accompanying fact sheets and activities to inform young women about HIV.

• Auntie Stella Activity Cards, based on findings from participatory research with 13-17 year-olds in four rural Zambian schools, were developed to answer real questions from the field. Each of the 33 activity cards has a letter from a young person on an adolescent health topic. The reader can interact to find out Auntie Stella's response and is prompted to recall the lesson learned and think about related topics.

• Developing Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (SEICUS, 1999), a "how to" handbook for educators, providers, policy-makers, and activists provides a step-by-step outline to develop guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education programs. Using case studies from Brazil, Nigeria, and Russia, the handbook includes components of comprehensive sexuality education; steps and processes involved in developing a guidelines project; suggestions for using the guidelines; suggestions for distribution and advocacy; suggestions for coalition building; and resources.

• Developmentally Based Interventions and Strategies: Promoting Reproductive Health and Reducing Risk among Adolescents (FOCUS on Young Adults, 2001) is a tool that provides information on the stages of adolescent development (under 10, 10–14, 15–19, and 20–24 years old) and appropriate ASRH programming. It also includes a tool to help guide activity or project development based on information about developmental stages and strategies.

• The Handbook for Evaluating HIV Education (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is comprised of nine booklets that address evaluation of HIV policy, HIV curricula, HIV staff development programs, and HIV-related student outcomes. They can be used to help assess the quality of HIV education programs at the state and local levels.

• The Role of Education in Promoting Young People's Sexual and Reproductive Health (DFID, 2002) includes lessons learned from a consultative meeting held to start a five year global DFID project called Safe Passages to Adulthood that began in 1999. It provides background information about the overall program and describes five in-school, four out-of-school, and four higher education programs.

• Skills for Health: The WHO Information Series on School Health, Document 9 (WHO, 2003), part of the FRESH framework (Focusing Resources on Effective School Health) supported by multiple UN agencies, is an 83-page report designed to strengthen efforts to implement quality skills-based health education on a national scale worldwide. It emphasizes the role of schools but is relevant to out-of-school settings. Chapters cover theories and principles, evaluation evidence and lessons learned, priority actions for quality and scale, and planning and evaluation issues, with useful appendices on selected interventions, resources, and documents.

Curricula and Links to More Resources 

• Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program (Advocates for Youth) is a curriculum with 15 chapters on sexuality, relationships, health, violence prevention, community responsibility, skills-building, values, self-esteem, parenting, employment preparation, and reducing sexual risk. It is packed with interactive exercises, supplemental resources, participant handouts, and a complete guide to implementation. It is intended for use with youth aged 13–18 years, in schools and other settings for sexuality/life skills education, HIV prevention education, and pregnancy prevention.

• The Annotated Bibliography of Sexuality Education Curricula (SIECUS, 1998) contains information on commercially available curricula that represent effective approaches to teaching about sexuality-related topics.

• The Compilation of HIV/AIDS Life Skills Teaching, Training, and Learning materials (UNICEF) has links to more than 20 resources from UN organizations and more.

• A Repackaged Set of Life Skills Tools (UNESCO), a compilation of pre-existing materials, contains a myriad of lessons from all over the globe organized into five sections: self awareness, assertiveness and negotiating, communication, decision-making, values clarification, and goal setting/career planning.