Adolescent Sexual And Reproductive Health

WHARC has an active Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Unit.  To date, some of the principal outputs of the Unit have included the following:

• Active advocacy for the abolishment of female genital mutilation, which resulted in the first bill for the prevention of female genital mutilation to the passed in Nigeria – the Edo State Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation Bill, 2000. Several other states have since followed this example shown by Edo State, and practice of female genital mutilation is now on the decline in Nigeria
• Research which documented the health seeking behavior of Nigerian adolescents towards sexually transmitted diseases.
• Intervention research, which demonstrate that capacity building of health providers identified by adolescents as their preferred choice of care, and information provided to adolescents to use such services, can increase adolescents´ use of evidence-based providers and methods for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
• One of the first interventions to address the needs of out-of-school adolescents in Nigeria was implemented by WHARC. This consisted of scholarships and career counseling provided to poor adolescents to return to school, skills and entrepreneurial development for those that cannot return to school, and job opportunities provided to adolescents that have completed schooling.
• More than a dozen papers that describe adolescents´ experiences of unwanted pregnancies and their use of unsafe abortion as a preferred option for resolving such pregnancies, the pattern of morbidity and mortality associated with unsafe abortion, and the current lack of relevant policies to address the problem of unsafe abortion in Nigeria.
• Comprehensive formative research that describe the social, developmental and health needs of adolescents in Edo state of Nigeria.
• A comprehensive action plan for improving adolescent reproductive health in Edo State, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was signed by the Governor of Edo State as evidence of the State´s commitment to implement the plan.
• The establishment of a youth friendly adolescent reproductive health clinic and library, that provides comprehensive information and clinical services to adolescents in a very congenial and friendly environment.

Current Focus - As a result of the experiences gained from the above initiatives, WHARC has re-strategized and is focusing on the following initiatives in its adolescent reproductive health programming :

1. Comprehensive Sexuality Education - To ensure that there is a buy-in by governments at all levels in adopting the Comprehensive Sexuality Education Curriculum that has been approved for use by the National Council on Education. Not only buy-in, but actual use of the curriculum will be pursued.
2. Ongoing Research - In particular, WHARC would focus on research that provides an understanding of the social and cultural determinants of adolescent reproductive health in both urban and rural settings. We will also focus on intervention and operations research that identify best practices and evidence-based approaches for addressing adolescent reproductive health in the region.
3. Providing livelihood skills for poor adolescents - WHARC is located in a region of Nigeria that has the highest rate of sex trafficking among adolescents, which in large part is driven by poverty. Thus, WHARC will continue to seek ways to improve livelihood skills for adolescents in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, and reduce the associated health risks for adolescents.
4. Building capacity for adolescent-friendly services - WHARC will seek collaborative ways to ensure that public health institutions understand the concept of adolescent-friendly services and are able to integrate the related practices into their services.

For further information about WHARC´s Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit, please contact Ms Helen Obi, the programme officer in charge of the Unit.