Advocacy and Institutional Capacity Development for Adolescent/ Youth Reproductive Health Programmes in Asia

Countries

Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Period

1997-2000.

Recipient

Vietnam Youth Union (VYU), Vietnam
Voluntary Health Services Society (VHSS), Bangladesh in cooperation with the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB), Bangladesh Girl Guides Association and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC).

Funding Agency

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Description

The aim of the project aims was to develop organisational capacity in advocacy for delivering and managing adolescent/youth reproductive health services through:

Development of a core group of youth leaders for furthering the cause of adolescent reproductive health (ARH).
Creation of common vision among the key stakeholders such as adolescents/youths, parents, policy makers, programme planners, managers, service providers and community leaders on the urgency of addressing adolescent RH needs and formulation of appropriate policies and designing the specific programmes for the adolescents/youths.
Development of knowledge base on ARH for key stakeholders.

Outcome

Initially there was some criticism regarding the utility of lessons from Scandinavian countries to the Asian countries due to cultural differences. However, the project has shown that the Scandinavian experiences are useful in ARH approaches in Asia as well. The visit by country teams from Vietnam and Bangladesh were useful as a vehicle for practical advocacy activities in Denmark and Sweden. The training of trainers helped build capacity for training counselors and peer educators through participatory approaches. The project has not only led to a model for advocacy and institution capacity building, but has also demonstrated the usefulness of North-South collaboration in developing and implementing quality ARH programs.