Project profile — Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women and Adolescents in Northern Nigeria

The expected outcome for this project include: (1) increased proportion of private sector outlets offering a broader contraceptive method mix and youth-friendly gender-sensitive services in targeted northern states; (2) increased provision of gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services in government health facilities of targeted rural communities; and (3) improved environment at state and community levels that encourages and supports gender-responsive sexual and reproductive health and rights services for women and adolescent girls.

Results achieved as of March 2021 include: (1) supported the provision of sexual and reproductive health services in public facilities for over 1.2 million women, and supported the provision of modern contraception through private retail vendors for 283,582 clients (of whom 155,729 are women); (2) trained 1,318 health care workers (of whom 1,218 are women) in gender sensitive adolescent-youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services; (3) trained 3,711 traditional birth attendants on gender responsive and adolescent friendly counselling and referral for family planning, maternal and neonatal health and post-abortion care; (4) provided counselling on sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and sexuality issues for 10,711 secondary school students at 50 program schools; (5) worked with states to expand their Family Life Health Education curriculum to include gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights and trained 744 teachers on the new curriculum; and (6) facilitated community engagement activities to help women and girls feel more confident in making decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Through community dialogues and other related activities, 90% of young women and girls surveyed reported improved power dynamics at home, including more joint decision-making.