Building an enabling environment and responding to resistance to sexuality education programmes: experience from Jharkhand, India

Reproductive Health

Mohammed Ziauddin¹  Aparajita Gogoi¹  Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli²  Marina Plesons²  Aarushi Khanna³ 

[1] Centre for Catalyzing Change, New Delhi, India;Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research and the Human Reproduction Programme, World Health Organization, Genève, Switzerland;The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, New Delhi, India;

关键词: Sexuality education;    Adolescents;    India;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12978-020-01003-9

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDespite the substantial need for sexuality education and evidence on its effectiveness, implementing organisations continue to grapple with numerous challenges, especially related to community support and resistance. This article aims to analyse the experience of Udaan, a programme that has achieved remarkable success in Jharkhand, India, to answer the following questions: (1) What strategies did Udaan use to create a supportive environment? and (2) What processes did Udaan use to respond to resistance during its implementation?MethodsWe reviewed programme documents and publications, synthesized key themes, identified questions of interest, and conducted interviews with key informants from the Centre for Catalyzing Change’s leadership.ResultsCommunity support for Udaan was built by ensuring that the curriculum was responsive to the context, capitalizing on an enabling policy environment, institutionalizing Udaan through government-led implementation, prioritizing careful selection and training of teachers, emphasizing monitoring and evaluation, and engaging with community gatekeepers. Udaan effectively responded to resistance by organizing a formal curriculum review, orienting editors of local newspapers on the programme; responding to questions and concerns; and proactively creating positive visibility.ConclusionThe lessons from Udaan provide insight into approaches that can be used to design and sustain sexuality education programmes in complex settings.

【 授权许可】

CC BY