TCI Youth

Adolescent & Youth Sexual & Reproductive Health

A Growing Youth Population

More than half of all the world’s adolescents live in Asia, with India having the largest adolescent population in the world at 253 million. In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescents make up the greatest proportion of the population, with 23% of the population aged 10–19. And these numbers are predicted to grow rapidly—particularly in urban areas as rural youth migrate to cities for economic opportunities. While adolescents and youth are subject to high sexual and reproductive health risks, few efforts have been documented for addressing these in urban settings, especially in poor settlements.

In 2018, TCI added Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) to its platform. The program is rooted in TCI’s AYRSH concentric circle strategy, which guides local governments in improving access to contraception in urban slums, building on the global evidence base of promising and proven approaches to increase voluntary contraceptive use among youth.

TCI’s concentric circle AYSRH strategy emphasizes as a top priority the importance of making AYSRH data visible to decision-makers, community members, and youth themselves. It highlights the importance of youth engagement with government and community leaders to advocate for youth sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues including funding. Segmented demand generation messages for youth and their influencers (i.e., partners, parents, teachers, and other gatekeepers) are also essential through both interpersonal communication, WhatsApp chatrooms, and media channels. And central to the strategy is addressing provider bias and service quality so youth are linked to quality AYSRH services delivered by sensitized facility staff oriented to set aside their biases against contraceptive provision—in particular for unmarried youth.

Twelve proven AYSRH interventions are curated in a global AYSRH-specific toolkit according to the concentric circles strategy. From these original 12 interventions, TCI’s hubs also have developed related AYSRH interventions that were adapted from the global toolkit for their local context.

TCI’s AYSRH Publications and Materials

Learn more about TCI’s AYSRH programming approach and results: