Uganda's 'Zero Grazing' HIV prevention response
Also: Love Faithfully · Uganda ABC
“Zero grazing”
Uganda's national HIV prevention response from 1986, led by President Museveni's government and local NGOs, which used near-daily radio, posters, billboards, churches and community meetings to promote 'zero grazing' (staying with one partner) and 'love faithfully'; casual sex and HIV prevalence then fell sharply.
- Years
- 1986–now
- Country
- Uganda
- Coined
- zero grazing
- Topic
- HIV/STI
- Asks people to
- StopTalk to someone
- Strategy
- Coined termMetaphorMulti level communitySimple instructionTrusted messenger
- Channel
- EventsOutdoorPrintRadioSchool
- Audience
- General publicMen
Evidence
ObservationalPositive
Green et al. (2006): men reporting casual sex in the past year fell from 35% (1989) to 15% (1995), women from 16% to 6%; men with 3+ non-regular partners from 15% to 3%; adult HIV prevalence fell from about 15% in the early 1990s to about 4-7% by 2003-2004; rural Masaka incidence fell from 7.6 to 3.2 per 1,000 per year (1990-1998). Stoneburner & Low-Beer (2004): a roughly 70% decline in HIV prevalence since the early 1990s linked to a 60% reduction in casual sex, with AIDS communication spreading through social networks. Trend data only; how much was due to communication versus deaths and other factors is still debated, and multiple partnerships rose again by 2004.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Government of Uganda (National AIDS Control Programme, Ministry of Health; Uganda AIDS Commission from 1992) Foreign government, creator
- Ugandan NGOs, faith-based and women's groups, TASO NGO, partners
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Sources
- Green EC, Halperin DT, Nantulya V, Hogle JA. Uganda's HIV prevention success: the role of sexual behavior change and the national response. AIDS Behav 2006;10(4):335-46 evaluation · 2006 · DOI 10.1007/s10461-006-9073-y · PMID 16688475
- Stoneburner RL, Low-Beer D. Population-level HIV declines and behavioral risk avoidance in Uganda. Science 2004;304(5671):714-8 evaluation · 2004 · DOI 10.1126/science.1093166 · PMID 15118157
Research notes
No agency: Green et al. (fetched full text, PMC1544373, 2026-10-22) name no advertising agency or media producer; the messages were developed by government and local groups and spread face to face. The 'zero grazing' metaphor (a tethered cow grazes only in its circle) is from an AFSA Foreign Service Journal snippet only. 'ABC' (Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise) became the label later and is contested; this record covers the partner-reduction messaging of 1986-1990s. Later YEAH 'Be a Man' (2006, Uganda AIDS Commission with Health Communication Partnership/JHU CCP) is a separate candidate case; no outcome data or agency found (comminit node 134015, fetched).
Record cases/uganda-zero-grazing.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign