Recommendations for Improved Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Democratic Republic of the Congo: Growing up Great!: Policy Brief

Growing Up GREAT! is a gender-transformative sexual and reproductive health (SRH) program for in-school and out-of-school very young adolescents (VYAs) ages 10-14 years, and the important adults in their lives. It was developed, piloted and scaled up in Kinshasa, DRC from 2016-2022 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health’s National Adolescent Health Program (MSP/PNSA), the Ministry of Education’s Department of Family Life Education (EPST/DEVC) and local community-based organizations. In the final year of scale-up, Growing Up GREAT! was also integrated into programming supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs. An external evaluation found that Growing Up GREAT! increased SRH knowledge and communication and improved key gender attitudes among participants, both immediately after the intervention and years later. More information on the intervention design, results and program partnerships are available on the project website. Over the last six years, Growing Up GREAT!’s collaborative learning efforts drove adaptation to improve effectiveness and sustainability, with the goal of ensuring activities continue under government leadership following the end of donor funding. During scale up, these efforts included a qualitative study that revealed the program can be effectively delivered by school and community actors through existing systems, and a final learning meeting with key stakeholders that resulted in a set of policy recommendations for sustainability. These recommendations are presented below.