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On-Going Work

 

Tejedores de Sueños Foundation is a private initiative founded  in 2010 with the objective of “promoting the education and wellness of the Costa Rican teenagers, through a scholarship program for promising young people from families with limited resources, within an holistic vision for strengthening values and, specifically, motivation for education, also cooperation for the welfare of their environment in general”. Its Healthy Youth Programme started in 2016 and aims to raise awareness among the population -and specifically teenagers- about the disadvantages related to teenage pregnancy, and to guide vulnerable young people to remain in education until they are 18 years old, even if they have a baby.

The programme is being evaluated by Dr George W. Leeson and Mr Kenneth Howse in collaboration with the Institute’s Visiting Fellow Dr Urbain Boutelegier. There have thus far been two site visits in 2017 and a further visit is planned in August 2018.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) provides millions of sexual and reproductive health services, including gynaecology, obstetrics, STI and HIV-related services, abortion-related services, contraception paediatrics and infertility.  IPPF is committed to improving people’s lives and requires enhanced measurement for internal reporting services, as well as informing policy and programme design. Following on from the Research Skills Training Workshop held at the Institute in collaboration with IPPF in 2017, the Institute has initiated a programme of work with IPPF to develop a range of impact and evaluation measures for IPPF’s extensive work around the globe.

This work is being carried out by Mr Kenneth Howse, Dr George W. Leeson and Dr Maja Založnik.

PPFN is a private, not-for-profit organization founded in the late 1950s to promote adoption of child spacing and contraceptive practices among individuals and couples. Together with the Institute, the PPFN is developing a proposal for a school-based mentoring programme which would:

  • Target adolescents between ages 11 – 19 years
  • Focus on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASHR) improvement and academic performance
  • Address the social challenges of both genders:
    • For the females - sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), teenage pregnancy, rape and early marriage and drugs abuse
    • For the males - STDs, drugs abuse, mutual respect and sense of responsibility
  • Academic follow-up support in poor performing areas by carefully selected and assigned mentors
  • ASRH capacity building for Guidance and Counselling (G&C) school units
  • Online safe space for ASRH counselling, complaints and coaching.

The work with the Institute would involve:

  1. A baseline survey: sexual knowledge and behaviour and effect on academic performance as well as G & C staff capacity
  2. Implementation of a pilot School-Based Mentorship Program (SMP) in selected schools
  3. Pilot assessment and evaluation

After this work, PPFN would aim to scale up the programme across Nigeria.

This work is being carried out by Mr Kenneth Howse and Dr George W. Leeson.

  • CHASE – exploring collaboration in Kenya

CHASE Africa (Community Health And Sustainable Environment) is a young, fast developing charity, established in 2012 to reflect the inclusion of family planning and health care. CHASE Africa enables women to choose the number and spacing of their children and helps communities to create a robust environment gives people a chance to leave poverty behind.

CHASE and the Institute are currently exploring ways to collaborate and secure funding for both research and practical programmes.

This work is being carried out by Professor Sarah Harper and Dr George W. Leeson.

  • CommonAge – exploring the impact of population change across the Commonwealth

CommonAge – an officially accredited organization of the Commonwealth – commissioned the Institute to undertake an overview of population development in the Commonwealth and the impact of this development in a variety of areas, including family dynamics and support. This research, which was launched during the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, explores how the demographics and challenges of population development differ across Commonwealth countries and examines how governments and societies are responding.

CommonAge and the Institute are now developing follow-up research.

This work is being carried out by Professor Sarah Harper, Dr Jaco Hoffman, Mr Kenneth Howse and Dr George W. Leeson.


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