Model and Strategy
This project reimagines reproductive healthcare for girls in West Africa, which has the highest proportion of young people in the world. Efforts to expand girls’ access to contraception fail because solutions are designed for them rather than with them. PSI unearthed a key insight through girl-centered research: Contraception is undesirable to girls because communications and providers talk about it as limiting fertility, when girls view motherhood as their most valuable asset, a precious dream. With youth co-creating solutions, PSI will reposition contraception to resonate with girls using media, community and peers to prevent unintended pregnancy while leveraging a reproductive health program for boys. Lessons will contribute to PSI’s global pledge to reach 10 million youth with contraception by 2020. When girls access contraception and prevent pregnancy, they are more likely to stay in school, have higher earnings, supportive relationships and equitable gender attitudes.
Impact
This project’s theory of change recognizes that teen pregnancy does not occur in a vacuum; it results from an interlocking set of factors that cuts across individual, service, community, and policy levels (e.g., poverty, gender inequality, stigma and discrimination, lack of access to services, and the marginalization of girls and women). PSI will place girls at the center to design messaging and services in a way that resonates and delights them, which will lead girls to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. PSI will also increase accessibility of girl-friendly services and improve the community environment. These activities will lead to increased access to and demand for contraception and an improved enabling environment, which will increase use of contraception among girls, leading to the long-term impact of decreased maternal mortality and morbidity from teen pregnancy.
Leadership
-
Karl Hofmann
President & CEO