DOI: 10.7910/dvn/23907
title: Malawi (2013): Youth Alert Formative study

description: In Malawi, the prevalence rate for modern methods has increased from 28.1% to 42% among married women of reproductive age (MWRA) between 2004 and 2010 (2010 MDHS). However, among all women of reproductive age (WRA), the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) is much lower, 33%. The lowest CPR is among the younger women (9% for women aged 15-19 and 33.1% for women aged 20-24). This is matched by a high unmet need for family planning of 25.7% among women under the age of 25. During the 2012 Family Planning summit in London, the government of Malawi (GoM) committed to increasing the contraceptive prevalence rate to 60% by 2020 with a proportional increase among young women. However, the GoM acknowledges that the human and financial resources to translate these goals into practice and improve services for young people are in short supply. Reaching young people with accurate information and accessible sexual and reproductive health services has become a national priority if Malawi is to realise its dream of slowing population growth. PSI/Malawi Youth Alert! Program was funded by USAID from 2002 to 2009. It was a life skill program designed to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, unwanted pregnancies among young people. The program applied an integrated approach to promote risk-
reducing behaviors, such as abstinence, condom use, and partner reduction. The primary means of outreach included Youth Alert! Mix (radio show) and Listeners Clubs; interactive educational presentations in each of the country's secondary schools; a life-skills magazine; and a peer education pilot project in two districts of Mwanza and Balaka. Evaluation results suggest that the Youth Alert! Program had an impact on reducing the percentage of young people with multiple sex partners, which was related to intensity of exposure to program interventions. PSI/Malawi will embark on a program targeting young people through the Reproductive Health Program. The goal of the program is to increase access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) information and services among young people. In 2013, PSI/Malawi has trained 15 service providers in provision of youth friendly health services. Through the training the following gaps were identified: -Inadequate knowledge on young people's behaviors and the drivers behind the behavior. -No availability of informational, educational, communication (IEC) materials easily accessible to young people on SRHR. -Young people feel left out on many messages that pertain to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). It has been years since PSI/Malawi directly worked with young people, hence a lot has changed among the youth. Based on this assumption, PSI/Malawi through its research department would like to conduct a formative research among young people to gather information in terms of their knowledge, beliefs on SRHR issues and their preferences in terms of message delivery language and channel. The main objective of this qualitative formative research is to get an insight into the audience for Youth Alert! by assessing knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of youth towards sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR).