Adolescents 360 (A360)

Image source: Public Services International (PSI)

Adolescents 360 (A360) is a multi-year project aiming to increase sexual and reproductive health among adolescent girls in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Background


Launched in 2016, Adolescents 360 was a large scale four-year project organized by Population Services International (PSI). The project consisted of several community-led sexual and reproductive health interventions in Ethiopia (Smart Start), Nigeria (Matasa Matan Arewa and 9ja Girls), and Tanzania (Kuwa Mjanja) . The project aimed to increase demand, access and uptake of voluntary modern contraceptives among adolescent girls (15-19 years old). Adolescents 360 made heavy use of adaptive implementation, with its various interventions often designed and implemented by adolescent girls directly situated in intervention settings.

Adolescents 360 transition to A360

On completion of the four-year project, in 2020 the Adolescents 360 project transitioned to its next phase, titled “A360“. Running through to 2025, A360 has the stated goal of scaling previous Adolescents 360 interventions, as well as broadly “supporting health systems to integrate girl-centered approaches into policies and practice.”

A360 activities include increasing economic empowerment and engagement among adolescents, providing additional service integration into existing health systems, reaching key populations, and expanding existing support for contraceptive education.

The A360 project contains a number of open-source resources to assist adolescents and others in implementing sexual and reproductive health programmes for adolescents, with resources being modelled on A360’s four phases: inquiry, insight syntheses, prototyping, and adaptive implementation.

“Historically, health organizations defined problems and solutions for youth, rather than with them. This creates significant risks for misinterpretation of what the problem is and makes assumptions about the types of solutions that might work best. A360 turns to youth as not only the subjects, but as equal partners in conceiving, developing, and implementing the project. Our young designers are assets to A360 and co-creators alongside adult allies. This constitutes the heart of our operations — ensuring A360’s impact while building collective project efficacy and ownership.”

– Jennifer Pope, PSI Vice President, Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV and TB.
[Source: www.comminit.com/content/adolescents-360-project]

Implementation and funding


Adolescent 360 (A360) is implemented by Population Services International (PSI) with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).  Additional design and implementation partners include IDEO.org, the Center on the Developing Adolescent, and the Society for Family Health (SFH).

Results


  • 314,155 adolescent girls attended Kuwa Mjanja (Tanzania) events, of which 220,430 adopted modern contraceptive method, by end of September 2020. Source
  • 75,237 adolescent girls counselled through Smart Start (Ethiopia), of which 35,420 adopted a modern contraceptive methods, by end of September 2020. Source
  • 172,517 adolescent girls counselled through 9ja Girls (Nigeria), of which 119,380 adopted modern contraceptive methods. Source
  • Final outcome evaluation report pending.

Video


Active social media channels


Resources


  • A360 toolkit resources – Link
  • 2021 A360 process evaluation final report (Country Annex)  – Link
  • A360 Process evaluation webinar: Lessons learned from the A360 process evaluation and practical prototypes for sharing results with young audiencesLink

Research and studies


  • Implementing adaptive youth-centered adolescent sexual reproductive health programming: learning from the Adolescents 360 project in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Nigeria (2016-2020)Link
  • Evaluating the impact of an intervention to increase uptake of modern contraceptives among adolescent girls (15-19 years) in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania: the Adolescents 360 quasi-experimental study protocolLink
  • Modern contraceptive use among unmarried girls aged 15-19 years in South Western Nigeria: results from a cross-sectional baseline survey for the Adolescent 360 (A360) impact evaluationLink

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