Population Council Research that makes a difference

UNFPA/UNICEF and the Population Council have collaborated for a number of years in addressing the need for targeted, evidence-based adolescent programming. The three institutions have gathered and analyzed data and monitored and evaluated program content in a variety of settings in order to maximize effective investment in youth, population development, reproductive health strategies, country-specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and poverty reduction strategies. This dedicated effort emphasizes the need for a demand-driven approach, where the needs of vulnerable subgroups of adolescents guide the policy initiatives.

Our ongoing work defines and addresses the gap between the intended beneficiaries of policies and programs and those actually receiving them. Policies and programs repeatedly ignore large, neglected subgroups of adolescents, such as 10–14-year-olds, out-of-school girls, girls at risk of child marriage, rural populations, youth not living with either parent and not in school, married girls, young migrants, and those at risk of unsafe, exploitative work, including girls in domestic service. This “one size fits all” approach to youth programming is based on assumptions rather than rigorous and careful analyses of their situations; this homogenization of youth ignores their multi-faceted needs.

Current work

• Adolescent girls index: Inform policymaking and programming for adolescent girls in Uganda specifically, and East and Southern Africa generally, by analyzing the available data on vulnerability and by conducting a review of the policy context and current approaches to programming for youth.
• Analysis of child protection indicators: In collaboration with UNICEF’s Child Protection Unit in New York, undertake an analysis of child protection indicators along which progress on the MDGs may be tracked to describe vulnerabilities associated with gender, ethnicity, residence, and minority status.
• Guidelines for youth-focused census analysis: Develop a methodology for using census data to support youth and adolescent policy and program decisionmaking.
• Web-based data: Migrate DHS adolescent data to UNFPA’s MDG5b+Info web platform and develop an interactive web application linking adolescent policy to data.
• Tools: Revise the "7-steps framework for promoting targeted, evidence-based adolescent programs and policies" and update the coverage exercise methodology.
• Programming: Advocate for and build the technical capacity among country-level partners in Central America; explore mechanisms for creating a Girl Fellow Program.
  
  

Offsite link: The Girl Effect