Adolescents 360 @ a Glance

Adolescents 360 (A360) is about reimagining and redefi ning the way sexual and reproductive health programs are designed and delivered for adolescent girls and young women. This means shifting from a typical model where programmers design programs to one where youth and adults from a range of disciplines design programs together.

Launched in January 2016, A360 is a four-year project aimed to increase access to and uptake of voluntary modern contraception among adolescent girls (15-19 years old) in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

PSI leads A360 with a core consortium of partners that brings together leading experts in public health, social marketing, human-centered design, developmental science and cultural anthropology. Our hypothesis is that through a fusion of these disciplines, combined with meaningful engagement of young people in all phases of the project, we will catalyze a series of novel approaches to program design and delivery that can be replicated and scaled by partners and governments around the world.

Our VisionWe envision a world where adolescent girls and young women can make informed decisions about their health, so that they can reach their full potential. This means that all girls and young women have access to the best information, the widest available options for contraception and the support and empowerment to live healthy and fulfi lling lives.

A360 Primary OutcomesThe overall goal of Adolescents 360 is to increase modern contraceptive prevalence among 15-19 year old girls, both within and beyond the project’s timeline and geographies. This means:

• Closing 50-80% of the existing contraceptive need-gap* among adolescent girls, 15-19, in project areas, by reaching over 325,000 new users of modern contraception.

• Increasing adoption of the A360 approach to design and deliver innovative adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs.

*Those who report need for, but are not currently using, modern contraception.

“I think we young designers help to interpret the feelings of adolescents. Our involvement helps to generate solutions.” – Eyerusalem, age 18

Photo credit: PSI/Kaleb Belete

Our Commitment

PSI joins countries and organizations around the world with its Family Planning 2020 pledge to reach 10 million people under the age of 25 with modern contraceptive methods by December 2020. Read the full pledge at www.familyplanning2020.org.

A360 Theory of Change

Merging Rigor and Vigor

A360 is bringing the rigor of science to the creative design process and eventual solutions through:

n Placing adolescents, and their key infl uencers, at the center of the design process.

n Fostering meaningful and lasting youth-adult partnerships.

n Embedding human centered design within a disciplined marketing process that has been proven to work at scale.

n Employing anthropological and consumer marketing lenses to better understand adolescent audience segments and transform that understanding into insights.

n Engaging the private sector to develop an effective model for fi lling gaps in the market.

n Addressing the social, developmental and normative factors that lead to early and unintended pregnancy, and improve the culture of acceptance of contraception.

A360 is Being Implemented in Five Phases

Impa

ct

Goal: Sustained health impact in and beyond the three project countries

Increased voluntary mCPR among adolescent girls (15-19 yrs)

Increased adoption of A360 approach to design interventions for ASRH beyond intervention areas

Prim

ary

Out

com

esO

utpu

ts

Interventions Implemented at ScaleProgrammers and policymakers have the

knowledge, motivation and capacity to apply learning from A360

Inpu

ts/A

ctiv

ities

Capture, package & disseminate

program learning

Global advocacy

Country-level advocacy

Inte

rmed

iate

O

utco

mes

Adolescent girls have increased Agency, Accurate Knowledge, Value of Benefi ts, Social Support, Community Acceptance

and Increased Access to quality SRH products and services

Adolescents use high quality

SRH products and services

Non-A360 resources allocated to A360-inspired interventions/approaches

Policies, strategies adopted that support A360-inspired interventions/approaches

+

Marketing + Public Health Science + Developmental Neuroscience + Cultural Anthropology + Human-centered Design + Youth Engagement

Inception Inspiration Ideation PilotingMarketing plan plus

business case for sustainable scale-up

Insight gathering, prototyping, iteration

Defi ne Target

Evaluate Evaluate

In Focus: Working with Young PeopleEyerusalem is an 18 year-old student living in Tigray. Eyerusalem was recruited by PSI Ethiopia to join the team as a young designer. During the Inspiration Phase of the project, Eyerusalem joined 13 other young people, PSI Ethiopia staff and members of the A360 consortium for a 7-day Research Bootcamp and then 2 weeks of research implementation in the fi eld with girls, boys, male partners, parents, health providers and community infl uencers.

Eyerusalem is one of a large cohort of young people across the three project countries that will work in close partnership with the A360 team to design and deliver project activities. Fostering meaningful and lasting youth-adult partnerships is part of A360’s DNA and critical to ensuring the project’s success.

“I think we young designers help to interpret the feelings of adolescents—their language, cultural aspects and their identity. Our involvement helps the project to be more clear—on what the research means and to generate solutions. I learned about punctuality, politeness, and leaving the decision to the interviewee about whether or not to continue with certain questions. I am building my own awareness of what adolescence means and what we are trying to do with A360. I am developing confi dence. I really understand what confi dentiality means. I am learning to be inspired. Generally, it made me into an upgraded version of myself.”

Inception Inspiration Ideation Pilot Scale

Project recruitment and start-up, followed by market-landscape anlayses and gender-power analyses in each country.

Formative research and insight synthesis conducted by design teams made up of researchers, programmers, designers and young people.

Design teams develop and test prototypes for increasing access to and uptake of modern contraception among 15-19 year old girls.

Successful prototypes are refi ned and tested more rigorously and for longer periods, for potential to scale.

Successful pilots taken to scale in collaboration with government and local partners, leveraging existing service delivery channels and networks.

Bridging Activities

Photo credit: IDEO.org

Photo credit: PSI Tanzania

National and country-level advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, application of design standards for decision-making, and learning and capacity-building.

“ “

Measuring Our SuccessJust as the project is taking a 360-degree approach to program design, it is also being evaluated from all angles. An external evaluation consortium, led by Itad, will be examining to what degree the project manages to close the use-need gap among 15-19 year old girls in the three countries, as well as the cost-effectiveness of the A360 approach. A comprehensive process evaluation will help to fi ll in the story of what happened over the life of the project so that other programs can replicate successful strategies.

A360 as a Global PartnershipA360 has the potential to be one of the most exciting, bold and transformational adolescent sexual and reproductive health projects of our time. Critical to our success are strategic, meaningful and dedicated partnerships with implementers, researchers, policy-makers and designers, both within and outside the public health sphere.

The A360 consortium was built upon the premise that in order to accelerate change for adolescent health we need a thoughtful and interdisciplinary approach that pushes the international community to not only change practice, but to change mindset.

Join Us!To achieve our vision for girls and young women, we cannot work alone. We are dedicated to engaging with governments, implementing partners and young people to ensure you have the capacity to replicate this project throughout and beyond the project’s four years. If you are ready to join our movement, please get in touch at adolescents360@psi.org!

Adolescents 360 is a four-year initiative co-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The project is led by Population Services International, together with IDEO.org, the Center on the Developing Adolescent at the University of California Berkeley, Triggerise, and the Society for Family Health Nigeria, and is working in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Our Partners

IDEO.org is a mission-driven design organization that practices human-centered design to improve the lives of people in poor and vulnerable communities.

The Center on the Developing Adolescent at UC Berkeley is advancing understanding of adolescence through innovative, transdisciplinary developmental science and translating emerging evidence into actionable health solutions.

Triggerise rewards people for doing the right thing. Using technology, Triggerise builds rewards programs that strengthen under-resourced economies, allowing people to improve their well-being as well as their communities”.

SFH Nigeria is one of Nigeria’s largest NGOs and part of the PSI global network. SFH will be working across Northern and Southern Nigeria in A360.

A360 is about reimagining and redefi ning the way sexual and reproductive health programs are designed and delivered for adolescent girls and young women.

Photo credit: IDEO.org