The Ugandan Life Skills Initiative

This report analyses the development of the Life Skills Initiative for young people in Uganda. This initiative seeks to strengthen health education in schools by developing pupils’ Life Skills, such as assertiveness, decision making and effective communication, to enable them to translate their health knowledge into practice. In the context of HIV/AIDS, Life Skills are seen as one of the young people’s principal protections against infection. Life Skills education requires a participatory, active learning approach, which presents a challenge to Ugandan schools with their huge classes and didactic teaching styles. The report explores how this challenge is being met, through the school system, and through other channels, including non‐government organisations, the mass media and the health services.