Any organized and sustained educational activities that do not correspond exactly to the definition of formal education. Non-formal education may therefore take place both within and outside educational institutions, and cater to persons of all ages. Depending on country contexts, it may cover educational programmes to impart adult literacy, basic education for out-of-school children, life-skills, work-skills, and general culture. Non-formal education programmes do not necessarily follow the ''ladder'' system, and may have differing durations, and may or may not confer certification of the learning achieved. (p. 47) Some studies report that non-formal education programmes have mixed results (Vermund et al. 2009; Ellis 1995; Evans 1981) . Critics of non-formal education say its effectiveness is too often assumed without proper evaluation, and that untested causal assumptions are frequently made about education and societal change (Benavot 2002) . However, nonformal education serves as an alternative for populations that do not have readily available and accessible educational options (UNESCO 2006) . Globally, non-formal educators have addressed sexually transmitted infections (STI), especially in settings with limited resources (Latkin et al. 2009; Shah et al. 2007; Akani and Erhabor 2006) . For example, in a randomly controlled HIV prevention trial, researchers observed improvements in service delivery, including referrals for HIV testing and provision of condoms, when non-formal care providers received enhanced training in HIV case management (Shah et al. 2007) . Peer education, anti-AIDS clubs, drama, art, youth dialogues, music, and comic books are some examples of non-formal education. Non-formal educational activities were a key determinant in the tremendous decline in HIV prevalence in Uganda, where the Ministry of Education and Sports introduced national-level prevention campaigns in 1986 (Jacob et al. 2006) . These activities included media messages targeting youth and school theatrical performances that depicted real-life scenarios facing youth. Plays were presented in over 8,500 primary schools nationwide, also reaching a large proportion of out-of-school youth. Non-formal education is extremely important to HIV prevention, given that the majority of transmissions occur among young adults.