Project profile — Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Adolescent Boys and Girls in the DRC

• Congo, Democratic Republic (100.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (30.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (25.00%)
Family planning (13030) (25.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)

The project aims to meet the needs of pre-adolescents and adolescents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with respect to comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services that are gender-specific and adapted to their reality. To do so, the network of school and local community organizations has become involved to maximize awareness and engagement of key players. The project focuses on promoting and supporting positive and healthy social norms in order to encourage respectful, equitable and sustainable behaviours. Project activities include: (1) developing educational and promotional materials on positive norms of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health services and rights that take into account the adolescents’ age and gender; (2) setting up school clubs for adolescents attending school and community space for youth; (3) adapting and improving the quality of SRH services in health centres to meet the needs of adolescents; and (4) establishing and strengthening child and youth protection committees comprised of community members.

The expected results for this project include: 1) increased and equal access to high-quality information on sexual and reproductive health services and rights that takes into account the adolescents’ age and gender; 2) improved quality of adapted sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in health centres to meet the needs of adolescents; and 3) increased stakeholder capacity to create a social environment that supports adolescents in exercising their sexual and reproductive health rights and protects them from sexual and gender-based violence.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2021) include: (1) 9,673 adolescents (5,440 of whom are girls) have participated in school clubs that educate them on gender equality, as well as sexual and reproductive health; (2) 20 community based organizations supported by the project by promoting gender equality as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights; (3) 284 health care providers (160 of whom are women) received training in sexual and reproductive health, women's and girl's sexual and reproductive rights, and providing support in cases of sexual and gender based violence; (4) 8,621 adolescent club members (4,643 of whom are girls) and 254 teachers of the family planning course attended information sessions on referral mechanisms and the mapping of sexual and gender based violence management services. They can now identify the steps to take, the available services and are encouraged to make quality referrals; (5) 114 providers (56 medical input managers and 58 people in charge of health training, 64 of whom are women and 50 of whom are men) received training on managing contraceptive inputs, so they are now better equipped to quantify contraceptive needs when making requisitions; and (6) empowerment of girls aged 10 to 14 increased by 7% from 2018 to 2021 and empowerment of girls aged 15 to 19 increased by 10%. As a result of the project's initiatives, adolescent girls are better informed, are more confident, and have enhanced their bargaining power to take actions regarding their lives despite social pressures and to claim their human rights.

• Proactive disclosure