This declaration is the conclusion of the special session on the response of the education sector to HIV & AIDS. It was written at the meeting of Ministers of Education of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, participating in a meeting in Roseau (Dominica), the 27th January 2007.

As national Ministries of Education, with support from the international donor community, begin making partial strides towards the Millennium Development Goals, the significant issue of school-related violence is largely absent from national education plans and from the priorities of donors.

"Engaging Young People to Prevent the Spread of HIV" is a pilot project implemented by the NGO SPACE (Society for People's Awareness, Care and Empowerment) and supported by UNESCO, New Delhi.

Because Pakistan is in a concentrated epidemic driven by injecting drug users and male and hijra (transgender) sex workers, a campaign was launched. In addition, Pakistan has one of the largest cohorts of young people in the world - 60% of the nearly 160,000,000 are under the age of 24 years.

Clearly, companies have a key role to play in tackling issues facing poor children around the world - HIV/AIDS, child labour and education.

Education Ministers and representatives from forty-eight Commonwealth countries met in Edinburgh from 27-30 October 2003 for the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (15CCEM). One of the six action areas discussed was mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS in Education.

This programme is included in the Source Book of HIV/AIDS Prevention Program that presents 13 case studies of good and promising practices of HIV/AIDS prevention programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The fact sheet presents the fact on HIV/AIDS among youth aged 13 to 24 in the United States and recommends effective strategies that may reduce sexual risk behaviours and prevent HIV and other STIs.

Technology resources increasingly link professionals working with reproductive health and HIV prevention programmes in developing countries. These same resources -- e-mail, CD-ROMs, listservs, the Internet, radio, and television -- hold great promise for reaching youth as well.