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Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) has gained global recognition as a vital effort to empower adolescents and young people; enable them to improve and protect their health, well-being and dignity; and support them in developing critical thinking skills, citizenship, and equal, healthy and positive relationships. This toolkit offers guidance and resources on ways to deliver CSE for children, adolescents, and youth in non-formal and formal settings and encourage other stakeholders to develop and implement CSE policies and programmes.
International policy agreements, along with emerging evidence about factors influencing programme effectiveness, have led to calls for a shift in sexuality education toward an approach that places gender norms and human rights at its heart. Little documentation exists, however, about the degree to which this shift is actually taking place on the ground or what it entails. Field experiences in using new curriculum tools, such as It's All One, offer one lens onto these questions. To gain a sense of practitioners' experience with this tool, a two-part exercise was conducted. …
Very young adolescents (VYAs)—those between the ages of 10 and 14—represent about half of the 1.2 billion adolescents ages 10–19 in the world. A technical working group that the World Health Organization (WHO) convened in 2010 observed that, although adolescents ages 15–19 have been the main population segment addressed by adolescent health and development programs, the “special needs and concerns of young adolescents ages 10–14—some of whom are already sexually active—have been relatively neglected.” This neglect is, to some extent, a result of a lack of global HIV-related data for VYAs. …
Objective: The objective of this paper was to produce a global inventory of school health services and describe characteristics such as target group, providers, staffing level, services, settings, and organizational challenges. Methods: The literature in PubMed and other sources were reviewed using an explicit methodology. Results: School health services exist in at least 102 countries. Usually services are provided within school premises (97 countries), by dedicated school health personnel (59 countries). …
Gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to make healthy choices about sexual behavior as adolescent learners transition to young adulthood is key to controlling the potentially devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. …
Background: Many adolescent girls in low-income and middle-income countries lack appropriate facilities and support in school to manage menstruation. Little research has been conducted on how menstruation affects school absence. This study examines the association of menstrual hygiene management knowledge, facilities and practice with absence from school during menstruation among Bangladeshi schoolgirls. Methods: We conducted a nationally representative, cross-sectional study in Bangladeshi schools from March to June 2013 among girls 11 to 17 years old who reached menarche. …
As everywhere in the world, adolescence is quite a challenging phase in the lives of young people in Pakistan. Girls and boys need support to not only understand all the emotional, social and physical changes they experience but also to help them transition into adulthood – safely and happily. Due to very strict and deeply felt societal and religious norms they are currently not getting this support, at home or at school. Sexuality is a taboo subject in most parts of Pakistani society. Even talking about bodily changes is con¬sidered ‘not done’. …
Background: Accessible sexual, reproductive, and mental healthcare services are crucial for adolescent health and wellbeing. It has been reported that school-based healthcare (SBHC) has the potential to improve the availability of services particularly for young people who are normally underserved. Locating health services in schools has the potential to reduce transport costs, increase accessibility and provide links between schools and communities. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. …
The objective of the “BALIKA: Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents” project is to generate programmatic evidence to delay marriage in Bangladesh. This report documents baseline data from a survey conducted in 96 villages in the districts of Khulna, Narail, and Satkhira on a range of related indicators on education, livelihoods, sexual and reproductive health, and social life. …
The report documents the process of scaling up comprehensive sexuality education and the status of sexuality education in East and Southern Africa.
Capturing girls’ voices: Channelling girls’ recommendations into global and national level action. Globally, there are around 600 million adolescent girls. Adolescence is a pivotal transitional period that requires special attention to ensure progress for all girls, especially the most vulnerable, and poses a unique opportunity to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and to transform gender roles. The onset of puberty and menstruation can pose an additional barrier to a girl’s personal freedom, and can signal entry into a different role in their family and wider society. …
This paper reports on the results of an exploratory evaluation of a sexuality education program that was introduced in technical and vocational institutions in Guyana. The rationale for the program is outlined, along with the methodology employed in the evaluation of the program, including the analysis of data from document reviews, telephone and face-to-face interviews, and surveys of facilitators and students’ perceptions of the program. …
In 2015, World Health Organization worked with the Nepal Ministry of Health to redesign the country’s Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, through a pilot study utilizing the Innov8 Approach – an 8-step review process geared towards helping health programmes better address gender, equity, human rights and social determinants of health. The aim was to identify the adolescent subpopulations being missed, increase coverages, identify inequities and take a holistic approach to adolescent health and development. …
At the heart of the Samata intervention is the development of a cadre of adolescent girl leaders who will sustain changes in favour of girls’ education and gender equality in their villages. The programme mentors girls to become confident and vocal young feminists, active in their communities and schools. Samata aims to equip them with the knowledge and skills to effectively negotiate a space that is hostile to women. Overall, the Samata programme has reached 3,600 girls across 69 villages in 2 districts of Bagalkot and Bijapur in northern Karnataka.
According to the theory of change that underlies the Samata programme, one important factor in keeping girls in school is to reduce gender-based violence by their male peers. This brief explains how Samata works with adolescent boys.
