Adolescent Transition in West Africa (ATWA)

The Adolescent in Transition in West Africa (ATWA) program is a four-year program that aims to influence and promote positive adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) outcomes by addressing some of the interrelated drivers of poor SRHR among very young (ages 10-14 years) and older (ages 15-19 years) adolescents in eight regions of the Liptako Gourma area, an area that covers eastern Burkina Faso, southwestern Niger, and a small portion of southeast central Mali.

Spanning from December 2019 until November 2023, the program aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents by catalyzing the provision of Life Skills Education (LSE) in school settings, and has been adapted to out-of-school settings for Niger and Mali. The ATWA in-school LSE curricula were developed by the Ministries of Education in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali in collaboration with various agencies and further adapted in collaboration with Save the Children. The out-of-school material was adapted by Save the Children from existing GREAT! tools. Using the culturally-adapted curricula, teachers, mentors, and peers will engage adolescent girls and boys in learning about SRHR – improving their attitudes, behaviors, and norms towards gender and SRHR and building critical life skills. Alongside the provision of LSE, ATWA aims to increase access to, and uptake of, quality adolescent-responsive SRH services and contraception among adolescents by working with service providers to improve the quality and youth-friendliness of services.