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.
