Suchergebnisse

In 1999, the Population Council's USAID-funded Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) project, began a three-year collaboration in Senegal on an adolescent reproductive health (ARH) pilot project that showed that a multisectoral, multidisciplinary approach can increase knowledge, enhance attitudes, and foster positive behaviors for reproductive health. Following requests from several neighboring countries, and given the long collaboration with WHO, FRONTIERS initiated efforts in 2007 to enable utilization of these findings in other African countries. The purpose of this report is to promote the utilization of multisectoral approaches for improving ARH programming by governments, donors, and national and international agencies in francophone West Africa. The most important recommendations for those seeking to replicate this approach to maximizing utilization of findings from research and scaling up effective service models are the continued involvement of key institutions from the outset, the use of a participatory process to ensure ownership and build capacity, and widespread and repeated dissemination of the results expressed as programmatic recommendations.

This operations research (OR) study focused on providing information appropriate to the cultural context of Senegalese adolescents on a variety of reproductive health issues including: knowledge of the human body; puberty; sexuality; gender roles; different cultural, familial, and peer values regarding sexual and reproductive behavior; contraception; responsible parenthood; STIs and AIDS; and sources of help and services. The study was undertaken in three urban communities in northern Senegal and had an overall positive result on young people's reproductive health knowledge, enhanced community understanding of youth reproductive health needs, and showed that a multisectoral approach is vital to supporting young people's healthy growth. This success prompted a follow-up effort to institutionalize youth reproductive health in the study districts, create a favorable policy and funding environment for adolescent reproductive health at the national level, and scale up the intervention in Senegal and to other francophone African countries (Mauritania, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali). This summary describes the essential process elements of this institutionalization effort. FRONTIERS provided technical assistance to the government ministries to develop action plans which were submitted to development partners for funding.

From 1999–2003, FRONTIERS implemented a Global Agenda program of operations research projects to address the reproductive health (RH) needs of adolescents in four countries—Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, and Senegal. The project was implemented in urban areas of Saint-Louis and Louga, in northwestern Senegal, and was known as Improving the Reproductive Health of Youth in Senegal. The project supported a public-sector, multisectoral intervention to enhance young people's knowledge and behavior regarding HIV prevention and RH, and systematically tested its feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and cost. The intervention had a significant positive impact on young people's awareness and understanding of RH issues. The pilot project showed that a multisectoral partnership with government agencies and involving interventions in communities, schools, and public health clinics could have significant positive results. Based on the pilot's success, FRONTIERS worked with the Ministries of Health and Youth to launch a follow-up project. As noted in this report, the project (2004–07) focused on sustaining adolescent RH activities in the two pilot districts and enabling scale-up in other areas of Senegal as well as replication by other organizations in francophone West Africa.

As in many developing countries, young people in Kenya and Senegal (aged 10–20) account for about 25 percent of the population. To ensure their future contribution to their countries, it is of vital strategic importance to safeguard their welfare. Rapid social change in both countries exposes youth to sexual and reproductive health (RH) risks, including unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and sexual violence. Beginning in 1999, the Population Council's FRONTIERS program conducted operations research studies that tested the feasibility, acceptability, and cost of a public-sector, multisectoral intervention to enhance young people's RH knowledge and behavior. Study findings showed improvement in young people's RH behavior and knowledge, successful engagement of government ministries, and increased understanding of RH needs among communities. Communities and the participating ministries in Kenya and Senegal expressed interest in incorporating elements from these interventions into their routine operations. FRONTIERS and its local partners launched follow-up projects in both countries to adapt, expand, institutionalize, and scale up the activities. This brief describes the processes involved in institutionalizing and scaling up the multisectoral interventions.