Achievements and Implications of HIV Prevention Programme among In-School Youths: A Systematic Evaluation of HAF II Project in Kogi State, Nigeria

Background: HIV and AIDS continue to be huge problems especially among youths.Nearly half of the 3.1 million Nigerians living with HIV were between 15 and 24 years old.This intervention project was therefore designed to reduce the incidence and prevalence of HIV among in-school youths (ISYs) in Kogi State, Nigeria.This paper presents the achievements and implications of this intervention.Methods: Four civil society organizations were engaged under HIV and AIDS Fund (HAF) II project to implement ISYs intervention in 6 out of the 21 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Kogi State.The project was carried out from 2014 to 2016 and implementation was done using HIV Minimum Prevention Package Intervention (MPPI).Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics with the use of Microsoft Excel.Results: The total number of community dialogues/advocacy held was eleven over the period of the project and 63.3% of the influencers that participated in 2014.A total of 69,248 peers were registered in this project and 65.6% were registered in 2015.Among these, a total of 54165 were reached with HIV education.A total of 9465 (27.5%) were counseled, tested and received result between 2013 and 2015; over half of this was done in 2015 (52.2%).A total of 208 tested positive and were referred for ARV while the prevalence was 2.2%.Majority (78.2%) of the registered peers were reached with MPPI. Conclusion:The high percentage recorded in terms of peers reached with MPPI suggests that the programme was successful.This project should be sustained and extended to other LGAs not covered so as to help reduce the burden of HIV in the state.