ADOLESCENT 360 (A 360) – LIVE PROTOTYPE

Adolescent 360 aims to develop new and innovative approaches for designing programs to improve the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls aged 15 – 19, primarily through increasing voluntary use of modern contraceptives.

In October 2016, the project team set out to learn about the lives of adolescents in Nigeria – especially girls, through conversations with girls and community members about values, community norms, and experiences, focusing on their access to, and attitudes towards, reproductive health services.

We learnt that Adolescents in Nigeria have a clear vision for their futures and they know who they want to be and what they want to achieve, however, there are economic, social, and contextual factors that often stand in the way of achieving these dreams. By protecting and improving girls’ sexual and reproductive health, we can mitigate some of the barriers they face on their journeys, and empower them to work towards the futures they envision.

Three design opportunities were identified from the insights gathered from the research:

• Create an informed and empowered generation
• Connect girls to Sexual and Reproductive health at relevant moments in their journeys
• Foster trusted support systems for girls to access Sexual and reproductive health services

These opportunities gave rise to designed solutions for adolescent girls in Nigeria. These include:

• A brand / platform
• Clinic Space
• Skills Class
• Provider Network
• Digital Experience
• Counselling and Services
• Outreaches

We learnt through our research that focusing on girls’ goals, like skills acquisition, and discussing love, dating, & health, connected girls’ values with contraception and made it relevant to their lives.

9ja Girls is a new program for adolescent Girls in Nigeria that incorporates all the potential designed solutions. The program aims to create safe spaces where girls can finally say what is on their minds and get the support they need from people they trust. 9ja Girls has 4 components:

9ja Girls Skills Classes: 9ja Girls offer teenage girls a wide variety of classes to learn skills for life, love and health. We teach vocational classes as well as cover topics related to love, dating, relationships and health.

9ja Girls Clinics: 9ja Girls clinic are a girls only safe space, where girls take vocational skills classes, learn about sexual and reproductive health, have private one on one counselling and receive health services from trained counsellors and providers.