Planning for Life

Planning for Life_Image

The goal of this two-phase USAID-funded initiative was to increase the integration of youth reproductive health and family planning into IYF’s youth development programs and strengthen the relevant technical capacity of IYF staff and implementing partner network. The initiative developed and tested a 10-lesson reproductive health life skills curriculum, which was translated into seven languages and adapted to fit the local culture in nine countries, including the Dominican Republic, India, Jordan, Saint Lucia, and Tanzania. IYF also provided local partners with supporting materials, such as a matrix tool based on age and marital status to help providers determine what parts of the curriculum most closely applied to their respective programs.

In the Dominican Republic, P4L worked with local partner Sur Futuro to adapt Reproductive Health Lessons: A Supplemental Curriculum for Young People to the Dominican context—targeting disadvantaged youth aged 16-29—and integrate it into their programming. The project evaluation found that Sur Futuro’s youth participants experienced statistically significant increases in reproductive health-related knowledge and attitudes from pre- to post-test (48 percent to 68 percent and 74 percent to 88 percent, respectively). Many of the youth went from knowing very little about their bodies to making commitments to take care of themselves, especially in the area of substance use. Several youth expressed interest in serving as facilitators themselves in future iterations of the training.

In Saint Lucia, P4L worked with local partner NSDC to adapt Reproductive Health Lessons: A Supplemental Curriculum for Young People to the Saint Lucia context, targeting vulnerable youth in correctional facilities, and integrating it into their programming. Through a partnership with the St. Lucia Planned Parenthood Association, NSDC was also able to provide free reproductive health check-ups and information to program participants. The project evaluation found that NSDC’s youth participants experienced statistically significant increases in reproductive health-related knowledge from pre- to post-test (61percent to 73 percent). NSDC Master Trainers subsequently trained employees at a local community college on the curriculum, and shared their experience with other partners in the region for learning purposes.

For more information on Planning for Life, see the final evaluation reports from Phase 1 and Phase 2 and check out this blog post on integrating reproductive health lessons into youth programming.

 

Funding Partners