NIHR Global Health Research Group on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in Malawi Our research will focus on the health and wellbeing of adolescents in Malawi from 2022 to 2026. We will work hand in hand with adolescents (10–14 years old) from rural (Mchinji) and urban (Blantyre) backgrounds to understand their lived experience, and the challenges they face in their day to day lives. We will then work with adolescents, parents and guardians and other interested parties to develop promising approaches to improve their health and wellbeing. These interventions will focus on three areas (1) gender, sexual and reproductive health rights, (2) aspirations and wellbeing including mental health, and (3) water, sanitation and hygiene. Work in these areas will be supported by research on the policy and  economic environment in which adolescent health and wellbeing sits. 

This is a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde (UK), Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Malawi) and the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences. The research will be transdisciplinary, meaning that our team of researchers from different disciplines (social care, education, sexual and reproductive health, environmental health, mental health, health economics, and health systems), and will work hand in hand with adolescents, family and community members, health workers, policy makers, and other organisations to design, implement and evaluate the research. 

We are focussing on adolescent health and wellbeing because the United Nations estimate that there are more young people (10-24 year olds) alive today than at any other time in human history, the majority of which live in low and middle income countries such as Malawi. Within these settings, adolescence is affected by several health and wellbeing burdens that are worsened by poverty. However, adolescents are often the most neglected group in health care service provision, particularly those in early adolescence (10–14 years), a time considered critical in shaping their future lives. In Malawi, despite efforts to prohibit child marriage, and expand youth-friendly health services, there has been limited progress towards meeting the needs of adolescents. For example, rates for completion of primary school remain low (44% male; 37% female), and pregnancy rates for adolescents remains high. These factors have worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected both schooling and health access.  

We hope that our approach will bring immediate benefits to adolescents, as well as benefits throughout their future adult lives and for the next generation of children. We aim to identify new approaches that will ensure more effective peer, parental and multisectoral support to enable young people to maximise their life chances. Objectives
Our vision offers a programme of transdisciplinary applied health research to be undertaken in a range of contexts in Malawi that will aim to generate new knowledge on the best preventive and nurturing strategies for adolescent health and wellbeing. 

Overarching Aim: 
To understand the psychological, sociocultural, socioeconomic, educational, political and geographical contexts which influence adolescent health and wellbeing, and to explore which interventions and policies can best support these in the future.
Overarching Research Objectives:
These summarise the overarching objectives of the Global Health Research Group on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in Malawi, and are supplemented by Work Package specific objectives as outlined in the table below:
a)	Determine the psychological, sociocultural, socioeconomic, educational, political and geographical contexts which both positively and negatively influence adolescent health and wellbeing across rural and urban populations (WS3),
b)	Examine and understand the current status of adolescent health and wellbeing, and how this is influenced by water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) and community engagement (WS3-6),
c)	Co-design, test and evaluate context appropriate intervention strategies to improve adolescent health and wellbeing (WS4-6),
d)	Co-develop recommendations through community engagement to inform evidence based adolescent health and wellbeing strategies (WS2, 4-6),
e)	Co-create and implement a capacity building programme to provide increased research and partner institutional capacity in Malawi (WS1).