This project aims to co-design a culturally relevant sexual and reproductive health (SRH) toolkit for adolescents aged 12-19 in semi-urban Pakistan by directly involving young people and key stakeholders through Priority Setting Partnerships, Participatory Action Research, and acceptability assessments.
Adolescents constitute a substantial portion of Pakistan's population yet face significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health knowledge and services.
The project employs three distinct research components to co-develop the SRH toolkit.
The planned SRH toolkit will cover a range of key reproductive health topics relevant to adolescents.
Youth champions are incorporated into the research design as peer educators to help shape toolkit content.
Dissemination of project findings is planned through multiple channels targeting stakeholders, communities, and policymakers.
This research describes a planned project in Pakistan designed to address a significant gap: although adolescents make up nearly a quarter of Pakistan's population, young people there have very limited access to accurate information about sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Cultural norms and low health literacy are among the key barriers. Rather than designing health education materials without input from the people they are meant to help, this project takes a collaborative approach — working directly with adolescents aged 12 to 19 from semi-urban Pakistani communities to build a toolkit that reflects their actual needs and questions. The project uses three steps: first, surveys and workshops to find out which SRH topics young people consider most important; second, focus groups, interviews, and peer-led education sessions (led by trained 'youth champions') to shape the toolkit's content; and third, review workshops with both young people and other stakeholders to make sure the final product is acceptable and useful. The toolkit will cover topics such as contraception, safe abortion, and gender-based violence, and will be available in English, Urdu, and Sindhi, both online and in print. This research suggests that effective health education for young people works best when adolescents are actively involved in creating it rather than simply receiving information produced by adults. By centering the voices and priorities of young Pakistanis, the project aims to produce materials that are more likely to be trusted, understood, and used — potentially improving informed decision-making around reproductive health in a population that currently has very limited access to such information.
S Lassi Z, Castleton P, Najmi H, Hayat S, Dhanwani A, Meherali S, et al.. (2025). Engaging adolescents in SRHR and family planning: from priorities to action.. Reproductive health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-025-02073-3