Quietly working for school-based sexuality education in Mexico: Strategiesfor advocacy

In the past decade, there have been dramatic changes in Mexico in public op inion and support for sexuality education. The growing recognition that you ng people are sexually active before marriage and need information in order to make responsible choices is the result of intensive health promotion ef forts by public and private entities. This paper is about the work of a Mex ican non-governmental organisation, IMIFAP, which has designed and evaluate d sexuality education programmes for children from pre-school age through a dolescence and for their parents, based on formative research. IMIFAP has a lso been advocating with others for the wider provision of sexuality and li fe skills education in schools,work that was rewarded in 1998 when the Mini stry of Education announced its support for comprehensive sexuality educati on in the standard school curriculum. IMIFAP's strategies for formula ting, implementing and evaluating an integrated programme of sexuality education in a developing country and advocating for its inclusion in national curri cula, could ser ve as a model which others can adapt.