Sustaining Youth-Friendly Services (YFS)

Sustaining Youth-Friendly
Services (YFS): Oromia
Regional Health Bureau’s
Ownership and Scale-up of YFS
Worknesh Kereta, Senior Youth Advisor
OUTLINE
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Background
What is YFS
Process of scale-up and adoption of YFS
Key results of scale-up
Lessons and implications
BACKGROUND
• 34.7% of Ethiopia’s total population are adolescents and
youth.
• The period of adolescence and young adulthood is a pivotal
development period.
• This age is also accompanied by early marriage, and
disproportionate risk of STI, HIV, and unintended
pregnancy.
• Access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information
and services is very limited.
• Stigma, service costs, and provider bias pose barriers to
young people’s ability to access services.
YOUTH-FRIENDLY SERVICES
• YFS is an evidence-based approach to reducing
barriers to service uptake among young people.
• In 2006 Pathfinder International/IFHP and the
Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH)
partnered to introduce and scale up YFS in public
health facilities in 6 regions of the county.
• Integrating YFS into Ethiopia’s health system enabled
the country to meet the SRH needs and rights of the
largely underserved adolescent and youth population.
Process of
scale-up and
ownership in
Oromia
INITIATION OF SCALE-UP
• 2007-2015: Pathfinder established 67 YFS in Oromia
Region in partnership with the Oromia Regional
Health Bureau (ORHB)
• 2013-2014: ORHB made a commitment to integrate
YFS into all health facilities in the region and to
include YFS in:
– Woreda-based planning and budgeting
– Integrated supportive supervision checklist
• Pathfinder agreed to provide technical assistance
PROCESS OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SCALE-UP
• Technical capacity building:
– Provide technical orientation and skills-building on
AYSRH and YFS to RHB (particularly AYSRH focal point)
– Support to understand and operationalize national
YFS standards
– Refine the existing YFS model to make it more scalable
and less resource-intensive
– Organize regional AYSRH Technical Working Group to
bring actors together and generate synergies (rather
than duplication)
PROCESS OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SCALE-UP
• To operationalize scale-up, Pathfinder support ORHB to:
– Map existing YFS within the woredas
– Identify facilities to be in first and second phase of the
scale-up
– Orient and facilitate zonal and woreda managers to
visit existing YFS to learn
– Map NGO/partners working in the area to help them
leverage resources
– Conduct a regular meeting to standardize the YFS in
the region
PROCESS OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SCALE-UP
• In the first phase of scale-up, major towns with high
population of young people were selected (YFS in 138
facilities)
• TOT for 30 participants from all zones of Oromia to roll
out YFS training to 275 providers from 138 facilities
• YFS standards and reporting format was developed and
disseminated to all YFS facilities
• ORHB conducted a 3-day orientation on how to further
scale up YFS using the existing learning sites as a model
PROCESS OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND SCALE-UP
• All zonal managers drafted action plans to scale up
YFS in their respective woredas by leveraging
resources
• Zonal health managers organized a 2-day orientation
for all woredas in their respective zones
• ORHB worked with the media to continuously discuss
SRH needs of young people and YFS in order to:
– Improve SRH knowledge among youth
– Generate demand for YFS
Results of
scale-up
efforts
RESULTS/KEY FINDINGS
• YFS were scaled up from 65 facilities to 232 in the
region.
• These facilities can ensure access to contraceptives
and other SRH services for young people in the
region.
Recommendations
RECOMMENDATIONS
• The Pathfinder-pioneered YFS became an excellent
learning site to further scale up YFS and shift
ownership of the program in one of the country’s
biggest regions.
• The shift from NGO ownership to government
ownership ensures program sustainability.
• Securing high-level officials’ commitment is critical to
program implementation, but it is time consuming.
For more information contact Worknesh Kereta
wkereta@pathfinder.org
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