FRONTIERS
Publications/Resources

Cameroon: Peer Education and Youth-Friendly Media
Reduce Risky Sexual Behavior
OR Summary no. 37

Background

To assess strategies to encourage abstinence, increase contraceptive use, and reduce sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates among sexually active youth, Cameroonian researchers at the Institute of Behavioral Studies and Research (IRESCO), with support from FRONTIERS, conducted an operations research project between July 2000 and February 2002. The intervention combined peer education strategies with a series of media campaigns to promote healthy behavior among youth in the Mokolo neighborhood of Yaoundé.

IRESCO trained 49 male and female peer educators aged 19–25 in reproductive health communication strategies. These youth coordinated formal and informal educational talks, one-on-one counseling sessions, conferences, and cultural and athletic events. Each educator organized at least one discussion or event per week in schools or public venues frequented by youth.

The team also produced comic books, brochures, and sold six French and English editions of Among Youth magazine, featuring celebrity interviews and information on reproductive health issues affecting youth including dating, contraception, and safe behaviors to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STI transmission. IRESCO evaluated the intervention’s impact through baseline and endline surveys of about 2,500 randomly selected youth aged 12–24 in Mokolo and the control site, New Bell, located in Douala.

Findings

• In total, approximately 200,000 adolescents received reproductive health information directly through IRESCO’s Among Youth campaign. After the intervention, 44 percent of youth surveyed had read at least one issue of the magazine.
  
• Abstinence increased in the intervention site and decreased in the control site. After the campaign, 62 percent of intervention site youth reported abstaining, compared to 50 percent before. In the control site, 56 percent reported abstaining after the project, down from 60 percent before.
  
• Fidelity also increased, with fewer youth reporting multiple sexual partners. Prior to the intervention, 37 percent of youth surveyed in Mokolo had more than one sexual partner per year. After the intervention the percentage fell to 30 percent. Boys continued to have more sexual partners than girls (38% of boys reported more than one sexual partner per year compared to 21% of girls).
  
• Communication improved between couples, and more youth were able to discuss condom use with their partners. Condom use during last intercourse with a regular partner increased in the intervention site from 42 percent to 62 percent among boys and 31 percent to 42 percent among girls. Condom use with the last occasional partner remained the same among control group girls (about 61%), but increased significantly among girls exposed to the intervention from 44 percent to 79 percent. Similar changes occurred among youth with regular partners in the control group.

Policy Implications

• Peer education programs, which emphasize interpersonal communication and reinforce reproductive health messages from mass media, can help youth translate knowledge into healthy lifestyles, including abstinence, fidelity, and condoms.
  
• Reproductive health messages should be integrated into popular youth activities, such as cultural and sports events, to create safe and comfortable environments where youth feel empowered to discuss sensitive issues affecting their lives.  
  
• IRESCO is scaling up the intervention with support from the World AIDS Foundation and GTZ. They hope to sustain the program through commercial advertising revenue generated by the Among Youth magazine.

September 2003

Source: Institut de Recherche et des Etudes des Comportements (IRESCO). 2002. “Peer education as a strategy to increase contraceptive prevalence and reduce the rate of STIs/HIV among adolescents in Cameroon,” FRONTIERS Final Report. Washington, DC: Population Council. (PDF, 1 MB)

This project was conducted with support from the U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT under Cooperative Agreement Number HRN-A-00-98-00012-00. 
 

For more information contact:
Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS)
Population Council
4301 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 280
Washington, DC 20008 USA
Telephone: +1 202 237 9400
Facsimile: +1 202 237 8410
E-mail: frontiers@popcouncil.org

Print this page

@ E-mail this page

This page updated 1 May 2006

---