Project profile — Empowering Youth Through Rights-Based Comprehensive Sexuality Education

• Ghana (33.00%)
• Colombia (33.00%)
• Togolese Republic (34.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (70.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (15.00%)
Family planning (13030) (5.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (10.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (principal objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (significant objective)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to empower young women and girls to exercise their rights to make free and informed choices about their sexuality and well-being in Bolivia, Kenya and Togo. The project partner, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), is a federation of Member Associations (MAs). The IPPF has identified 3 MAs to become Centres of Excellence over the course of the project. The project supports the establishment of these three Centres of Excellence in Bolivia, Kenya and Togo for gender-integrated and rights-based youth-centred sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programs for the Latin American, Anglophone and Francophone African regions. The project enables the three International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Member Associations to: 1) improve access to comprehensive sexuality education programs and SRH services that are gender-integrated, rights-based and youth centred; 2) improve the quality of CSE programs so that they are rights-based and gender equality-focused including information on how to address harmful gender norms, providing tools for girls and young women to be empowered in their relationships; and reducing incidence of early marriage and pregnancy; and 3) develop the capacity of the IPPF Member Associations to support regional programming that is rights-based and youth-centred, as part of their capacity as a Center of Excellence. These efforts aim to decrease risks to young women, improve their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and enhance their life opportunities.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased uptake of quality integrated gender and rights-based youth-centred SRH services for youth in Bolivia, Kenya and Togo; and (2) improved quality of youth-centred programming supported by the Centres of Excellence in selected East and West African and Latin American countries.

Results achieved at the end of the project (September 2023) include: (1) increased use of quality, integrated, gender and rights-based, youth-centred sexual and reproductive health services to 671,732 young people. This represents a 26 % increase from the initial target; (2) trained 3,624 educators, including 1,452 comprehensive sexuality education teachers and facilitators and 2,172 peer educators, and increased capacity of educators to reach youth with comprehensive sexuality education. Also, 222,003 young people (111,648 women) completed a comprehensive sexuality education training cycle; and (3) enabled the regional Comprehensive Sexuality Education Centres of Excellence to support 31 organizations in conducting quality assessments of youth-centred and comprehensive sexuality education programming and created improvement plans based on the findings.

• Proactive disclosure