Adolescent & Youth-Friendly Health Services

This approach provides a guide on how to provide responsive sexual reproductive health (SRH) services to adolescents and young people based on an understanding of what young people want in a particular society or community. Adolescent and youth-friendly health services (AYFHS) must be offered in an environment where service providers are non-judgmental and considerate in their dealings with adolescents and youth, have competencies needed to deliver youth-responsive SRH services, and health facilities are equipped to provide adolescents and youth with services they need and commodities that they want in an appealing and friendly manner.

The Importance of Youth-Responsive Services

There is growing recognition of the importance to overcome the individual, socio-cultural and systemic barriers adolescents and youth face in accessing and utilizing SRH services. Thus, in order for adolescents and youth to achieve their full potential, they need to be provided with opportunities to live in a safe and supportive environment, acquire accurate information and values about health and development needs, and build life skills they need to protect and safeguard their health. This tool will help in:

• Implementing quality SRH services to meet the needs of adolescents and young people
• Strengthening the capacity of service providers in providing SRH information and services to adolescents and youth
• Ensuring appropriate, comprehensive, and effective SRH services are provided in an accessible, acceptable, and equitable manner
• Supporting both utilization and provision of AYFHS services

Meaningful Participation and Environment

Given the unique developmental stage in which adolescents and youth are at, their meaningful participation is key. They must be involved in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health services and decisions regarding their own care. In addition, the characteristics of the health facilities that young people visit are just as important as the service providers they meet and the choices available to them. Adolescents must be aware of where to obtain the services, and community members must be aware of the health service needs of different groups of adolescents and youth and support their provision.

Capacity Building and Workforce Education

Professional Competencies

The workforce is at the heart of every service delivery setting and certain youth-friendly competencies are essential for effective services. Health care providers should be trained to work competently, sensitively and respectfully with adolescents and young people on their sexual and reproductive health needs. A necessary part of youth-friendly health service provision is awareness among providers of the barriers that young people face in accessing sexual and reproductive health services.

Training Outcomes

To make sure that the service providers are equipped with skills and have the right attitude to provide services, local governments have trained and oriented over 1,850 providers since 2018 to-date. The main objective of the training was to address and overcome provider bias in providing youth with SRH services. WHO’s "Health for the world’s adolescents: A second chance in the second decade" suggests that progress towards universal health coverage for adolescents will require renewed attention to the education of health care providers.

Policy Frameworks and Government Commitment

Through regulatory or policy frameworks, the Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda governments have committed to making it easier for adolescents and young persons to obtain the health services they need. This means that efforts should be directed at making existing service delivery points – intended to provide health services to all segments of the population – more friendly to adolescents and young people in an accessible, acceptable, equitable, appropriate and effective manner.