Meeting Addresses Need to Increase Demand for Youth Friendly Clinics

JUNE 2009—With young people composing an increasingly large segment of Egypt's population, FHI/Egypt and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) conducted a stakeholders' meeting June 8 to discuss ways to increase demand for youth-friendly clinics. Such clinics are needed because Egyptian youth often lack information enabling them to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health. They face problems and challenges that are unique to them and that require interventions and information specifically designed to address their needs.

One of the main purposes of the meeting was to disseminate results of an FHI-led formative assessment of youth reproductive health needs in two governorates—Menofia and Ismailia. Compilation of these results represents the first step in producing a strategic behavioral communication (SBC) plan that will underpin efforts to encourage youth to use the clinics. SBC, which is the FHI brand of behavior change communication, is the integration of marketing principles and behavioral and social science.

The formative assessment was funded by UNFPA in collaboration with the Egyptian Family Planning Association (EFPA).

PHOTO: Attendees discuss solutions at the "Increasing Demand for Youth-Friendly Clinics: From Insight to Inspiration" stakeholders' meeting. (FHI/Egypt)