Zohra S Lassi, Patience Castleton, Hina Najmi, Sana Hayat, Anny Dhanwani, Salima Meherali, Zahid Memon
{"title":"Engaging adolescents in SRHR and family planning: from priorities to action.","authors":"Zohra S Lassi, Patience Castleton, Hina Najmi, Sana Hayat, Anny Dhanwani, Salima Meherali, Zahid Memon","doi":"10.1186/s12978-025-02073-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Adolescents make up to 23% of Pakistan's population, yet they face significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and services. These challenges stem from systemic and individual factors, including cultural norms and low health literacy. This project aims to directly involve adolescents and key stakeholders in the co-development of a culturally relevant SRH toolkit to improve access to accurate information. By actively engaging adolescents, the project seeks to enhance their knowledge, participation, and decision-making in SRH care, supporting their healthy development.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This project will co-design an SRH toolkit for young people aged 12-19 years from semi-urban communities in Pakistan, in collaboration with adolescents and other key stakeholders using three research components. First, a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) involving surveys and workshops will identify priority SRH topics. Second, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach using focus groups and interviews with adolescents, with youth champions facilitating peer education sessions to help shape the toolkit content. Finally, an acceptability assessment will be conducted through workshops and surveys with stakeholders and young people to ensure the toolkit aligns with their needs and preferences.</p><p><strong>Expected outcome: </strong>The project will produce a user-friendly SRH toolkit tailored to the needs of adolescents in semi-urban Pakistan, covering key topics such as contraception, safe abortion, gender-based violence, and more. The toolkit will be developed collaboratively in English, Urdu, and Sindhi, and made accessible both online and in print. All materials will be reviewed by participants before finalization. Project findings will be disseminated through stakeholder workshops, community meetings, reports, peer-reviewed publications, conferences, media engagement, and policy briefs.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Effective SRH initiatives require purposeful youth engagement, guided by their expressed needs. By centering adolescent voices in the co-creation of a SRH toolkit, this project promotes accessibility, agency and informed decision-making - ultimately strengthening SRH knowledge in young people in Pakistan.</p>","PeriodicalId":20899,"journal":{"name":"Reproductive Health","volume":"22 1","pages":"127"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12255146/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Reproductive Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-025-02073-3","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Adolescents make up to 23% of Pakistan's population, yet they face significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and services. These challenges stem from systemic and individual factors, including cultural norms and low health literacy. This project aims to directly involve adolescents and key stakeholders in the co-development of a culturally relevant SRH toolkit to improve access to accurate information. By actively engaging adolescents, the project seeks to enhance their knowledge, participation, and decision-making in SRH care, supporting their healthy development.
Methods: This project will co-design an SRH toolkit for young people aged 12-19 years from semi-urban communities in Pakistan, in collaboration with adolescents and other key stakeholders using three research components. First, a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) involving surveys and workshops will identify priority SRH topics. Second, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach using focus groups and interviews with adolescents, with youth champions facilitating peer education sessions to help shape the toolkit content. Finally, an acceptability assessment will be conducted through workshops and surveys with stakeholders and young people to ensure the toolkit aligns with their needs and preferences.
Expected outcome: The project will produce a user-friendly SRH toolkit tailored to the needs of adolescents in semi-urban Pakistan, covering key topics such as contraception, safe abortion, gender-based violence, and more. The toolkit will be developed collaboratively in English, Urdu, and Sindhi, and made accessible both online and in print. All materials will be reviewed by participants before finalization. Project findings will be disseminated through stakeholder workshops, community meetings, reports, peer-reviewed publications, conferences, media engagement, and policy briefs.
Conclusion: Effective SRH initiatives require purposeful youth engagement, guided by their expressed needs. By centering adolescent voices in the co-creation of a SRH toolkit, this project promotes accessibility, agency and informed decision-making - ultimately strengthening SRH knowledge in young people in Pakistan.
期刊介绍：
Reproductive Health focuses on all aspects of human reproduction. The journal includes sections dedicated to adolescent health, female fertility and midwifery and all content is open access.
Reproductive health is defined as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system, at all stages of life. Good reproductive health implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. Men and women should be informed about and have access to safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, and the right to appropriate health-care services that enable women to safely go through pregnancy and childbirth.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
