Adolescent/Youth Reproductive Health
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Empowering youth leaders and programme managers requires the essential development of knowledge base in adolescent/youth RH and skills in planning, designing and implementing a comprehensive programme. As such, ICOMP has been building institutional capacities for adolescent/ youth RH through various approaches.

In catalysing innovative practices of regional adolescent/youth RH for experience sharing and learning, ICOMP, in 1994–1996, documented five programmes in adolescent reproductive health (ARH) in India, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and organised an Asian regional seminar.

ICOMP developed leadership and management training modules for ARH
programme in 1996. Following this, a four-year policy advocacy and
institutional capacity building for ARH programmes in Vietnam project ensued in
1996. An outcome of this was an ARHInformation Kit for policy makers. Subsequently, in 1998–2000, ICOMP strengthened managerial skills
of high-level programme managers and developed leadership capacity of youth leaders.

In 2002, ICOMP began implementing a three-year project with partner NGOs in India, Thailand and Indonesia on demonstrating comprehensive young people’s sexual reproductive health (SRH) programmes through South-South collaboration.


Demonstrating Comprehensive Young People’s RH Programmes
through South-South Collaboration

A three-year project on young people’s sexual reproductive health (SRH) in 2002 was funded by the European Commission (EC), through nteract Worldwide (IW), a British NGO. Four NGOs and one government ministry in three counties collaborated in implementing comprehensive young people’s SRH programmes
through demonstration models as the foundation for effective large-scale programmes in a South to South learning context. The NGOs are Child in
Need Institute (CINI), India; Lembaga Kemaslahatan Keluarga Nahdlatul (LKKNU), Indonesia; and the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) and Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), Thailand; and Centre for Health Education, Training and Nutritional Awareness (CHETNA), India.

It seeks to contribute towards improving young people’s SRH in the Asian region by enhancing individual and organisational capacities, focusing on youth participation, gender sensitivity and community involvement.

Young students of
pesantren, Indonesia

 

Key Findings India: Focus on in/out-of-school youth and married youth at the 24 Praganas South District of West Bengal. Young people at the project site in rural West Bengal became self-confident to demand for health services to be made more accessible. Young village women in particular are vocal in their desire for income-generating skills. Indonesia: Focus on youth at religious boarding schools known as ‘ pesantren’, including out-ofschool youth, school administrators, teachers, religious leaders and surrounding families of the ‘pesantren’ in East and West Java. In the target ‘pesantrens’ of East and West Java, young men and women are empowered to speak in an open forum on issues related to changes in bodily functions and to raise questions on personal hygiene during menstruation. Thailand: Focus on schools, colleges and factories in Pitsanoluke Province. Besides young people, school administrators, teachers, parents, medical service providers, local government, NGOs and the private sector are also targeted. In Pitsanoluke Province, young people particularly those in school and colleges, have developed and demonstrated a high level of self-esteem in their understanding of the importance of practising safe sex through condom use.