Grant: Project Grant

Adolescents (10-19 years) are a big segment of the Nigerian population, and they face serious risks to their health and well-being. Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) indicators are worse in the north of the country, including in Bauchi State, where the cultural context limits open discussion of the issues. Over the last five years, a partnership of CIET/PRAM from McGill University, a Nigerian NGO (Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria) in Bauchi State, and the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency implemented and demonstrated impact of a program of universal home visits for improving health of mothers and children. The partnership also explored the sensitive issue of child-spacing and co-designed with stakeholders culturally safe interventions to support child-spacing. This work has built trust between researchers and local leadership and communities. This project uses a participatory approach involving stakeholders throughout. Stakeholders (including female and male adolescents, parents, service providers and planners) will map their knowledge of causes of ASRH risks. This will inform tailoring of survey instruments to collect information from adolescents and parents in households, and from local service delivery institutions. Working with adolescents, we will create materials such as video dramas to share findings with stakeholders in communities and services. Adolescents and other community stakeholders will discuss the evidence and plan and implement local culturally acceptable actions to improve ASRH. We will measure the short-term impact of these actions qualitatively, through stories from stakeholders, and quantitatively in a repeat survey. In a final phase, the research partnership will disseminate the findings more widely, and support Bauchi state planners and policy makers to develop evidence-based policies and strategies to improve ASRH.