Dear Colleagues,
Are you interested in an easy way to learn about new publications, articles, and resources for family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH)? Would you like to learn about other Abt FP/RH projects or share the latest and greatest from your project?
Would you benefit from having connections to your Abt colleagues at HQ and in other countries implementing similar technical work? Or a chance to present at an Abt or international event? If so, please join IHD’s FP/RH Community of Excellence (CoE). CoE members can expect to receive articles, summaries (including the monthly newsletter below), conference announcements, and other relevant FP/RH technical resources. The CoEs encourage participation from the CoE members and aim to create a space for the exchange of ideas, questions and information on best practices. Please email Elizabeth Magnusson to request to join the FP/RH CoE.
Please note: If you already receive the monthly FP/RH newsletter, you are already a member of the CoE! No action is needed to continue membership. CoE’s are open to ALL Abt staff.
Family Planning/ Reproductive Health
eNewsletter, January 2015
The FP/RH Technical Segment has focused this edition of the newsletter on issues surrounding youth. With the enhanced focus of USAID, DfID, and other donors and the international community in general on this growing demographic, it is important for Abt and its projects to reflect on if and how we are reaching young people. UNFPA estimates that there are currently 1.8 billion youth between the ages of 10 and 24, and this age group is growing fastest in the poorest nations. It is critical to give youth more options when planning for their futures and aid them in setting and achieving their professional and personal goals, including when and if to have a family. Yet reaching youth also presents additional challenges in that they respond to different messages than adults, may have more limited resources, and have social and cultural pressures and norms to respond to.
This issue of the newsletter highlights some recent articles and publications that focus on youth, including a special supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health that is focused on sexual and reproductive health.
Please reach out to us if you have questions or need assistance in finding resources to help you think through if and how you can reach youth in your programs.
Noteworthy
Blogs and Articles:
Special Supplements:
“Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for Young Adolescents in Kenya.” DSW staff provide a snapshot summary of their work to-date to roll out the Young Adolescents Project (YAP), a sexual and RH public education project now active in nine primary schools in coastal Kenya’s Kilifi County. Developed in partnership with Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, the program aims to engage young adolescents ages 10-14 in open dialogue about their sexual health. Early findings suggest the program has already improved communication between enrollees and “key” adults in their lives (such as parents and teachers), and decreased the school dropout rate among young girls.
In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Journal of Adolescent Health has released a special issue devoted to adolescent sexual and reproductive health service delivery, education, and policy. Topics include recent efforts to:
· Allow adolescents to participate directly in the development of their own sexual and reproductive health service programs;
· Evaluate the impact of intimate partner violence and sexual violence on adolescent sexual health practices;
· Evaluate and enhance adolescent sexual education programs; and
· Increase youth and adolescent demand for contraceptive and reproductive health services in their communities.
A full copy of the supplement can be found here.
Publications of Note:
· Chandra-Mouli, V., McCarraher, D. R., Phillips, S. J., Williamson, N. E., & Hainsworth, G. (2014). Contraception for Adolescents in Low and Middle Income Countries: Needs, Barriers, and Access. Reproductive Health, 11(1), 1. After reviewing Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from 16 low– and middle-income countries, the authors determined that, although a significant proportion of adolescents are sexually active, the majority continue “to face a number of barriers in obtaining contraception and in using them correctly and consistently.”
· Santhya, K. G., & Jejeebhoy, S. J. (2014). Sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls: Evidence from low-and middle-income countries. Global Public Health, (ahead-of-print), 1-33. This policy analysis “reviews the most recent data on adolescent girls' sexual and reproductive health and its social determinants in lower and middle income countries, and analyzes progress since 1994 to the extent that data allow. It maps the challenges and opportunities for meeting the health needs and protecting the human rights of adolescent girls, looking forward to continuing ICPD implementation, and to inclusion of actions for adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health, particularly of girls, in the post-2015 development agenda.”
· Sidze, E. M., Lardoux, S., Speizer, I. S., Faye, C. M., Mutua, M. M., & Badji, F. (2014). Young Women's Access to and Use of Contraceptives: The Role of Providers' Restrictions in Urban Senegal. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 40(4), 176-183. Using survey data collected for the Gates Foundation’s Urban Reproductive Health Initiative in Senegal, researchers found that young women’s unmet need for contraception remains significant (19% among married women, and 11% among unmarried women), which may be due in part to access barriers imposed by providers. Although access barriers were most often attributable to minimum age restrictions, some women also reported difficulty obtaining access to oral and injectable contraceptives due to their marital status.
· Stephenson, R., Simon, C., & Finneran, C. (2014). Community Factors Shaping Early Age at First Sex among Adolescents in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda. Journal of Health, Population, and Nutrition, 32(2), 161. Researchers reviewed national survey data from four African countries, and identified several “protective factors” impacting adolescents’ age at first intercourse. In addition to confirming previously-established inhibiting factors such as level of education and degree of household wealth, the authors noted that higher community levels of wealth, parent-adolescent closeness, and youth involvement in social groups are also associated with delayed sexual debut.
· Wamoyi, J., Mshana, G., Mongi, A., Neke, N., Kapiga, S., & Changalucha, J. (2014). A Review of Interventions Addressing Structural Drivers of Adolescents' Sexual and Reproductive Health Vulnerability in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Sexual Health Programming. Reproductive Health, 11(1), 88. In this literature review, the authors evaluated 15 prior studies targeting adolescent sexual and reproductive health services and determined that many initiatives focused efforts on “economic pathways to risk and livelihoods opportunities, [but provided limited] rigorous evaluation [as to] whether the approach works, raising questions as to whether they [were] actually effective in reducing adolescent sexual risk.” In response, the authors suggest future interventions outline a clear evaluation strategy, and attempt to better align efforts across providers and other stakeholders working in the field.
New Resources:
PSI, in partnership with USAID and FHI360, has developed a “new, global screening checklist for providing the IUD as emergency contraception. It is intended for providers who are screening women that are seeking an emergency contraceptive method in a clinical setting,” and is available in English, French and Spanish by clicking here. You will need to create a free account on the Knowledge Gateway if you do not already have one.
Upcoming Events:
February 10, 2015: Join us at 9:30am EST for a brown bag on FP/HIV integration with USAID Office of Population’s Senior FP/HIV Integration Advisor Jennifer Mason and Nithya Mani from the USAID Office of HIV. Call-in instruction will be sent out soon.
Through April: Don’t forget to start thinking about abstracts that your project can submit to the 2015 International Conference on Family Planning. Contact Robin for assistance from the Technical Segment.
If you have project updates, success stories, or any information of interest
you would like featured in an eNewsletter, please send submissions to