While adolescence is a critical time for girls to build the agency and resources they need to make healthy and safe transitions to adulthood, too often they face insurmountable challenges. As girls enter adolescence, they encounter more pronounced gender roles and gender discrimination, which severely limits their access to assets as well as access to modern contraception. Launched in January 2016 by PSI, Adolescents 360 (A360) aims to respond to this challenge by increasing access to and uptake of voluntary modern contraception among adolescent girls (15-19 years old) in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, A360 seeks to reimagine and redefine the way sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs are designed and delivered for adolescent girls and young women.
Gender equality is essential in order for adolescent girls to fully realize their sexual and reproductive rights. Kore Global has been working with the A360 team to support efforts to ensure gender equality is integrated through the project design and implementation as well as to showcase learning and best practice in SRH programming through the development of knowledge products.
Since 2020, Kore Global has provided a range of technical support services including: 1) leading the development of a multi-country gender strategy in 2021 and a mid-term participatory refresh process in 2024; 2) supporting the production of a knowledge brief on the integration of SRH and economic empowerment interventions for adolescent girls; 3) developing a series of learning papers on integrating gender equality in programming and 4) providing quality assurance and technical oversight of a network of in-country gender specialists.