Best Practices Signpost > Adolescent Health
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Family Planning/Reproductive Health |
Abstinence and Delayed Sexual Initiation for Youth 
INFO Project, November 2004, 2 pgs. This Global Health Technical Brief defines abstinence and discusses risks of early sexual début. Lessons learned and program implications include overviews of successful media campaigns and age appropriate messages.
Action for Adolescent Health
WHO, 1997, 14 pgs. In 1995, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children's Fund jointly convened a study group on programming for adolescent health. On the basis of current experiences, especially in developing countries, the study group reviewed the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of key interventions for adolescent health; highlighted the essential factors and strategies needed to establish, implement and sustain programs; developed a common framework for country programming; and recommended priority actions to strengthen adolescent health programming. This brochure reflects the recommendations of the Study Group.
Adolescent Friendly Health Services. An agenda for change
WHO, 2002, 48 pgs. Intended for policy makers and programme managers in both developed and developing countries, as well as decision makers in international organizations supporting public health initiatives in developing countries. Makes the case for concerted action to improve the quality and friendliness of health services to adolescents. Drawing upon case studies from around the world, it reiterates that this can be done by non governmental organisations and government bodies working with limited financial resources. It highlights the critical role that adolescents themselves can play, in conjunction with committed adults, to contribute to their own health and well being.
Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) Website 
Funded by UNFPA, this UNESCO-operated website disseminates information from Asia-Pacific countries on their programs, policies, advocacy and IEC strategies, lessons learned, and guidelines in promoting adolescent reproductive and sexual health. This website is designed for educators, policy makers, researchers, programme managers and their staff, as well as health service workers and provides access to information on ARSH policy and programmatic best practices, lessons learned, innovative strategies, news, research and other tools and resources.
The Advance Africa Approach to Best Practices: A Mini-Compendium for Adolescent Reproductive Health Interventions [draft]
Advance Africa, March 2003, 99 pgs. This report identifies effective approaches to addressing adolescent reproductive health needs based on a review of program efforts in developing countries, with some reference to developed country programming. Conclusions are based primarily on evaluated projects and, to some extent, on observations by program implementers and assessors. It begins with an introduction that explains how programs were selected and what evidence of success was required and includes discussion of limitations and barriers to success as well as evidence of success and lessons learned. Covers 27 projects and programs.
African Youth HIV/AIDS Best Practices Handbook
Development Partnership International, August 2006, 105 pgs. The Handbook is a compendium of 95 youth-led and youth-focused HIV/AIDS projects from 25 countries in Africa. It is intended to showcase the outstanding work of African youth to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to provide best-practices examples which can be replicated locally in Africa, and hopefully globally. This Handbook should help to encourage further education and prevention efforts, promote African youth leadership to curb the pandemic, and create as well as sustain opportunities for the participation of African youth in local, national, regional, and international efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Use of the arts, media and ICTs are all featured in the Handbook, as are some practices created and implemented with adult allies.
Best Practices in Adolescent Reproductive Health
Advance Africa, October 2003, 2 pgs. Advance Africa produced a 'Best Practices Update' quarterly. Each update highlighted best practices within one technical area, summarized practice details, and provided a reference for users to further research best practices in this area in the Best Practices Compendium. This issue features best practices for school-based programs in Ibadan, Nigeria, the Tsa Banana social marketing campaign in Botswana, and a peer education campaign in the Dominican Republic. Each practice includes a short description or case study and a discussion of key success factors. Includes resources for additional information.
Best Practices in Egypt: Youth Awareness and Action
The CATALYST Consortium, August 2006, 8 pgs. This report summarizes Shabab (TAHSEEN) Week (STW) where female and male youth leaders in rural Upper Egypt attended a week-long program of community service, sporting activities, and reproductive health/family planning education. The purpose of these events was to raise awareness about reproductive health/family planning among youth as well as among the community.
FOCUS on Young Adults
This website contains best practices and lessons learned from the FOCUS on Young Adults project including briefs and reports on FOCUS programs, policy and research. FOCUS was a USAID-supported project ending in 2001. It assisted educational and health service delivery organizations in 30 countries to develop, monitor and evaluate programs to improve the reproductive health of young adults. FOCUS was a project of Pathfinder International, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine and The Futures Group International. YouthNet is the USAID project designed to build upon work implemented by FOCUS on Young Adults, continuing its emphasis on global technical leadership. YouthNet is a project of Family Health International.
Getting to Scale in Young Adult Reproductive Health Programs
Part 1 Part 2a Part 2b
FOCUS on Young Adults, April 2000. This tool aims to improve program managers’ understanding of scaling up and to help them plan for scaling up their own programs. Program managers need to consider four important factors before scaling up: whether the program has been effective, how scaling up will affect the program’s impact, whether the increased scale will be sustainable, and their objective of scale. Four major approaches to scaling up covered in this document include: Planned expansion - steady process of expanding the number of sites and the number of people served by a particular program model once it has been pilot tested. Association - expanding program size and coverage through common efforts and alliances across a network of organizations. Grafting - adding a new initiative to an existing program, such as adding a sex education program to academic school programs or making family planning programs directed at adults “youth friendly.” Explosion - sudden implementation at a large scale, usually with its roots in high-level politics. Most youth/adolescent reproductive health programs achieve scale-up through a combination of these approaches.
Going to Scale in Ethiopia: Mobilizing Youth for a National HIV/AIDS Program
Kathy Attawell, July 2004, 42 pgs. This case study describes a collaboration between the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the YouthNet and Impact Projects of Family Health International. The study documents a successful youth-adult partnership that used youth-led Particpatory Learning and Action (PLA) as an effective methodology to empower young people to communicate their sexual and reproductive health needs.
Growing in confidence. Lessons from eight countries in successful scaling up of adolescent health and development programming
WHO, 2002, 44 pgs. Programming for adolescent health and development is evolving from attention to issues and projects to more comprehensive national programming approaches. The stories of eight countries in this report provides insight on the road that some countries have taken to scale up programmes to the national level. It discusses lessons learned from experiences in Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand and Tunisia. Lessons learned stress that successful programming is evidence based; because problems are connected, solutions must be connected as well; strong political leadership is needed; and young people must be involved.
HIV Prevention with Especially Vulnerable Young People: Case Studies of Success and Innovation
WHO, Safe Passages to Adulthood, DFIF, May 2006, 43 pgs. Building on the five core principles and three areas of action outlined in "A Framework for Action - HIV/AIDS prevention and care among especially vulnerable young people" (released in April 2004), each case study describes an innovative approach to working with young people who are homeless, using drugs, selling sex or living in deprived communities. Case studies come from Argentina, India, Iran, Kenya and Nigeria. This is a key resource for policy-makers, practitioners and researchers working to promote young people's sexual health in resource-constrained settings.
Innovative Practices of Youth Participation in Media
UNESCO, 2006, 76 pgs. This document discusses the various kinds of innovative uses and participation of youth in media in different cultural contexts. It demonstrates that young people, working with a range of media materials, produce innovative content through dialogue and discussions. On the basis of case studies in Ghana, Haiti, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Zambia, the "Innovative Practices of Youth Participation in Media" study examines how youth get involved with an assortment of media including newspaper and magazine, radio, television and video, the Internet, and personal digital assistants.
Issue brief: best practices. National Initiative to Improve Adolescent and Young Adult Health by the Year 2010
National Adolescent Health Information Center, 2004, 12 pgs. A growing body of research exists about practices and strategies that have been proven to promote adolescent health. Adolescent health practitioners often work on a variety of issues at once, including unintentional injury, reproductive health, substance use, violence, mental health, nutrition and physical activity, and youth development. It can be a major task to locate information about Best Practices in every outcome area. This issue brief provides an overview of Best Practices and a comprehensive listing of resources for Best Practices in each of the areas listed above.
Peer Approach in Adolescent Reproductive Health Education: Some Lessons Learned
UNESCO-Bangkok, 2003, 74 pgs. This publication synthesizes the experiences of some Asian countries in the use of a peer approach in their adolescent programs and activities to facilitate delivery and acceptance of the message. It also shares lessons learned and offers guidelines to enable policy makers and program managers to learn from these experiences and to adopt/adapt those strategies that will have the greatest potential to succeed in their own settings.
Preventing HIV/AIDS in Young People: A Systematic Review of the Evidence from Developing Countries
World Health Organization, 2006, 357 pgs. This report provides evidence-based recommendations for policy-makers, programme managers and researchers to guide efforts towards meeting the UN goals on HIV/AIDS and young people. These goals aim to decrease prevalence and vulnerability; and to increase access to information, skills and services. This report provides a systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions provided: through schools, health services, mass media, communities, and to young people who are most vulnerable to HIV infection. [2 summaries available]
World Health Organization, Population Council, Family Health International, June 2006, 32 pgs. The combined contributions of the three organizations represent one of the largest and most up-to-date bodies of research and program evidence on reaching youth. This Global Health Technical Brief defines abstinence and discusses risks of early sexual début. Lessons learned and program implications include overviews of successful media campaigns and age appropriate messages.
What Works in Youth Media: Case Studies from Around the World
By Sheila Kinkade and Christy Macy, International Youth Foundation, 2003, 85 pgs. This publication reports on seven case studies involving young people and the media from the US, Vietnam, Albania, China, Mexico, Zambia and the UK. Its goal is to profile a diverse range of youth media projects operating internationally in the hope their experiences and lessons learned will help inform and guide the work of others contemplating or undertaking similar activities. Only the Zambia case study is health-related. It features Trendsetters, a magazine developed by/for youth dedicated to preventing the spread of HIV in Zambia. The projects were selected by the International Youth Foundation.
Updated: 2007/3/21
