Giving Compass' Take:

• Joy, a designer at PSI's SRH program, Adolescents 360 (A360) in Nigeria, sheds light on how youth perspective can inform the design and analysis of the program. 

• Joy describes how incorporating a youth lens and feedback strengthens the data collection process and analysis. In what other ways can feedback help inform social service projects?

• Read about how PSI focuses on a youth-powered approach to healthcare. 

In Southern Nigeria, three in 10 girls want but don’t have access to modern contraception. Across the nation, 1 in 4 pregnancies among this age group will end in an abortion, many of which are unsafe.

Joy – through her role as a young designer PSI’s flagship youth-powered SRH program Adolescents 360 (A360) in Southern Nigeria – is on a mission to change the reality for girls like her sister. Joy, alongside 280+ A360 young leaders across Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia and among a diverse crew of experts, digs deep into young people’s lives to understand how A360 can pave pathways for girls aged 15-19 to access contraception, where they want and how they say they need.

We asked Joy for her insight into how young people’s voices power youth programs like A360 to strengthen SRH decision making, and ensure young people’s needs remain at the core, every step of the way.

Q: You are the team’s youth data queen. Tell us about what you collect.
JOY: I, in partnership with my team, collect data from our girls and the clinics we operate in. Our goal is to ensure that the girls who visit the facility for the first time are accurately inputted into our system so we can effectively track their progress to understand what is encouraging them – or discouraging them – from continuing to engage with A360’s service delivery.

Q: How does a youth perspective strengthen AYSRH programming?
JOY: Whether it be in data collection or technical advising, young people understand the challenges and joys of being an adolescent firsthand.

My perspective allows adolescents to feel that their needs and opinions are reflected in the decision making and implementation process. What they tell me informs the analysis I apply to the data collected. It creates a positive relationship and a sense of belonging and trust between those designing and those being designed with and for.

Read the full article about youth data collection at psi.