Publications by Theme

A Reproductive Health Communication Model That Helps Improve Young Women's Reproductie Life and Reduce Population Growth: The Case of PRACHAR from Bihar, India, 2010

Using data from a project in Bihar, India, this paper shows that culturally acceptable and community-focused interventions geared to adolescents and youth can help increase age of marriage and first birth, increase contraceptive use among young couples, provide vulnerable populations better access to RH services, and reduce population growth.

Increasing HIV/AIDS Therapy Adherence Among Youth in Mozambique: the TAP/Pathfinder International Experience, May 2009

Increasing HIV/AIDS Therapy Adherence Among Youth in Mozambique highlights the process and results of Pathfinder’s successful program to keep highly vulnerable HIV-positive youth in the medical system with access to life-saving care and treatment.

Pathfindings: Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care Services in Africa, October 2008

A report on Pathfinder's Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care project in eight African countries. The project was implemented June 2007 to May 2008 with the goal of increasing access to PAC services that are responsive to adolescents' special needs.

Assessment of Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care Services: A Global Tool for Assessing Postabortion Care for Youth, October 2008

This tool is designed to help assessment teams, project managers, supervisors, and providers collect detailed information on the quality of Postabortion Care (PAC) services provided to adolescents at a given facility in order to make services more youth friendly.

Saving Young Lives: Pathfinder International’s Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care Project, October 2008

Summarizing Pathfinder's recent experience implementing the Youth Friendly Postabortion Care (YFPAC) Project in eight African countries, this report contains program descriptions, an overview of the process of making PAC services youth-friendly, key results, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations. 

Pathfinder Ghana Youth-Friendly PAC, July 2008

In 2007, Pathfinder International administered a one-year Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care (YF PAC) project in eight sub-Saharan African countries. This brief document reviews the challenges, results, and lessons learned in Ghana.

Adolescent Refugees and Migrants: A Reproductive Health Emergency, 2008

This publications outlines the specific reproductive health needs of this cadre of adolescents and the programmatic responses that can be used to reach them.

Community Pathways to Improved Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Conceptual Framework and Suggested Outcome Indicators, 2007

A paper developed by the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG), advocates for a better articulation of community-involvement processes and for more comprehensive measures of outcomes of community-involvement interventions. Co-chaired by UNFPA and CARE, the group's active members include: Advocates for Youth, CARE, Pathfinder International, Save the Children-USA, and UNFPA.

Reproductive Health of Young Adults in India: The Road to Public Health, 2006

This report describes the Reproductive Health of Young Adults in India (RHEYA) project.  RHEYA’s goal was to delay early marriage, increase the use of contraception by young couples to delay the first child and space subsequent children, and to reduce the use of abortion as a method of contraception. The RHEYA project model was groundbreaking in India in recognizing the necessity to develop messages and means of intervention appropriate to the specific needs and interests of young people at different life stages.

Causes and Consequences of Early Marriage in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, 2006

This report examines a study conducted in the spring of 2006 that gathered both quantitative and qualitative information on the practice of early marriage in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. It provides information to guide the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs aimed at reducing the incidence of early marriage in Amhara and all of Ethiopia. Results and insights may prove helpful in contexts outside of Ethiopia as well.

Raising the Age of Marriage for Young Girls in Bangladesh, 2006

This report describes a three-year pilot program implemented in one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh. The program provided support for primary and secondary school girls, paramedic training to secondary school graduates, and created community support for girls’ education and delaying marriage through advocacy meetings. Over the course of the program, primary and secondary school enrollment increased significantly, while the incidence of early marriage decreased. 

Improving Female Recruitment, Participation, and Retention Among Peer Educators in the Geração BIZ Program in Mozambique, 2006

In response to the under-representation of female peer educators in the Geração BIZ Program (GBP), an adolescent sexual and reproductive health program in Mozambique, an operational research study was used to test new strategies for improving recruitment, participation, and retention of female peer educators. The study tested an intervention model to increase the involvement and performance of girls in the GBP. The study started with the hypothesis that a protocol addressing young women’s needs for comfort and security, skills acquisition, support, and mentoring would improve their recruitment, retention, and effective performance in the program. The implementation plan involves four interrelated phases, using qualitative and quantitative data. This report presents results of all four phases.

Creating Partnerships to Prevent Early Marriage in the Amhara Region, 2006

In the Amhara regional state of Ethiopia, 50 percent of girls are married before the age of 15. Early marriage is one of many harmful traditional practices that are particularly prevalent in rural areas, along with female genital cutting, abduction, and unattended births. Pathfinder works in collaboration with local partners to prevent early marriage through extensive advocacy efforts, paired with community and legal interventions through its community-based reproductive health programs.

Promoting Change in the Reproductive Behavior of Youth, Pathfinder International’s PRACHAR Project, Bihar, India, 2005

The PRACHAR Project offers unique lessons in how to improve the health and welfare of adolescent and young mothers and their children by changing traditional customs of early childbearing. This report offers a detailed overview of the project’s successful efforts to reduce early marriage, to delay childbirth among young women, and to space subsequent births.

• Changing Reproductive Health Behavior in Youth: A Cultural Shift in Bihar, India Published in Global HealthLink, June/July 2007

Scaling Up Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention: The Geração Biz Project, 2004

The experience of Pathfinder International and the Foundation for Community Development in Inhambane Province, Mozambique. 

Partnering with African Youth: Pathfinder International and the African Youth Alliance Experience, 2004

This review documents Pathfinder International's challenges, successes, and lessons learned from the five-year African Youth Alliance.

Comprehensive Reproductive Health and Family Planning Training Curriculum: Module 16: Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents, 2002 (Revised 2004)

This module explains the necessity of special training for adolescent reproductive health. Providers are sensitized to the needs of adolescents and are prepared to tailor reproductive health services so that they are youth-friendly. The module puts particular emphasis on dual protection against STI/HIV and pregnancy, safer sex, counseling, providing care to the pregnant adolescent, and dealing with issues of gender, sexual abuse, and sexual orientation.

• English Version
• Amharic Version

Module 16 Participants Guide:

• English Version: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Combined
• Amharic Version: Combined

African Youth Alliance: Reports and Resources

The African Youth Alliance (AYA) was a five-year initiative to improve adolescent reproductive health and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania. Through the Alliance, young people were educated about HIV/AIDS prevention and provided with necessary information, skills, and support to protect their health.

Clinic Assessment of Youth-Friendly Services: A Tool for Improving Reproductive Health Services for Youth, 2003

This tool helps program managers and clinicians determine the extent to which current reproductive health services are youth-friendly. Results from the tool can be used to tailor services to better meet the needs and preferences of young people. Under the African Youth Alliance (AYA) Project, Pathfinder conducted baseline assessments in Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ghana using this tool.

Providing Reproductive Health and STI/HIV Information and Services to This Generation: Insights from the Geração Biz Experience, 2002

This report was written in the hope that by documenting the initial stages of the Geração Biz project, others in the field of adolescent reproductive health could learn from this experience. As the project is ongoing, numerous activities and changes have occurred since this document was written. This document includes key strategies and interventions, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations.

FOCUS on Young Adults: Tools and Resources

Focus on Young Adults was a six-year program led by Pathfinder International in partnership with the Futures Group International and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Funded by the US Agency for International Development from 1995 to 2001, it was the first USAID-funded program to focus on the reproductive health concerns of adolescents and young adults.

Insights in Adolescent Project Experience, 1998 

This report presents an overview of Pathfinder's experience supporting reproductive health projects for adolescents in the early 1990s. It describes programs undertaken in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Near East during this period and discusses their evolution, who they served, what their effects have been, and what has been learned by them.