Institutionalizing High-quality Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Programming in Humanitarian Settings

In 2020, the IAWG ASRH Sub-Working Group released the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Toolkit for Humanitarian Settings: 2020 Edition, revised in accordance with changes to the Inter-Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings and Minimum Initial Service Package for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Crisis Situations. The Toolkit provides strategies and tools to help close the SRH service provision gap for adolescents by building upon the advocacy endeavors and lessons learned from the past decade to advance SRH prioritization for adolescents in humanitarian contexts.

The Toolkit does not promote a one-size-fits-all approach; instead, it calls on humanitarians to prioritize lifesaving SRH services throughout the entire program cycle and humanitarian continuum—not only during the crisis phase, but also before its onset, during the recovery, and beyond, toward long-term development.

To ensure meaningful engagement from adolescents and youth during the revision process, the SWG held four webinar series in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish, comprised of four sessions and covering the most salient youth topics of the Toolkit. The four webinars consulted with more than 90 young people, representing more than 30 organizations/networks across at least 17 countries, to gather and incorporate feedback, case studies, and tools into the revised Toolkit. The revision team also incorporated two rounds of feedback from ASRH stakeholders at global, regional, and country levels. In total, throughout the revision process, the IAWG ASRH SWG consulted and collected feedback from more than 130 people (approximately 68% young people; 12% field-based staff; 20% regionally-based staff) across 75 organizations and representing specialties in ASRH in humanitarian and development contexts, as well as the humanitarian sectors of child protection, education, food and livelihoods, gender-based violence, humanitarian operations and management, and mental health and psychosocial support.

View Toolkit

In response to the ongoing pandemic, a three-part crisis-management workshop series, Stay Strong, Stay Standing, was developed in consultation with young people and the IAWG ASRH sub-working group with speakers representing UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and youth organizations.

• Session 1: Safety First: This session answered questions related to staff safety, including how to maintain personal, volunteer, and staff safety and well-being.
• Session 2: Safety First, Operations a Close Second: This session answered questions related to youth organization's continuity during Covid-19, including how to adjust programming and activities.
• Session 3: Get Ahead: This session answered questions related to preparation and resiliency during Covid-19, including how to prepare for future crises, as well as put in place measures and policies for dealing with the future effects of Covid-19.

All of the session recordings, key takeaway documents, and a list of resources shared are provided on IAWG’s website in English and French. In total, more than 300 people registered for the workshop series, and nearly 300 people participated and/or viewed the session recordings.

With support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IAWG was also able to provide 15 small grants of $2,500–$3,000 for operational needs (e.g. personal protective equipment, internet cards, laptops, furniture for working remote, etc.) to youth-led organizations. In total, more than 700 organizations applied for the funding—highlighting the clear need from youth-led and community-based organizations impacted particularly hard by COVID-19.

IAWG, in partnership with Save the Children – Rwanda, also developed a rapid-response mechanism that provided two grants of $20,000 each, along with capacity-building support from IAWG, for youth-led organizations conducting ASRH activities in Mahama Refugee Camp and the surrounding host community. Data was also collected from adolescents on their SRH needs, barriers, and experiences at the health facility. Stories from nearly 800 adolescents and youth in Mahama Refugee Camp and the surrounding host community were collected over the course of four weeks. The results will be discussed jointly with ASRH stakeholders—including adolescents/youth—in Rwanda to analyze the findings together and co-develop recommendations to address the SRH needs of adolescents in this setting.