Reproductive Health

Decision makers want to know which strategies are most cost-effective for improving adolescent reproductive health and what resources are required to implement or scale up successful programs. Yet little is known about these programs' costs, and few researchers are building cost-analysis into their program designs. This report summarizes the results of a multi-partner study of youth reproductive health interventions in rural and urban areas of India from 1996 to 2006. The research program demonstrated that it is possible to create effective programs to improve adolescents' health in a relatively short time. This report draws on lessons learned on how to strengthen community and government efforts to improve youth reproductive and sexual health.

An accompanying briefing kit provides short summaries of specific projects and outcomes.

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Reproductive Health: Evidence from Three Adolescent Reproductive Health Programs in India
Understanding Costs to Improve Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Results from a Study in Rural Maharashtra, India
Understanding Costs to Improve Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Results from a Study in Rural Tamil Nadu
Understanding Costs to Improve Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Evidence on Replicating a Tested Model in Delhi, India
Influence of Men and Boys on Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Lessons from Intervention Studies in India
Influence of Men and Boys on Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Husbands' Involvement in Maternal Care in Rural Maharashtra, India
Community Mobilization and Youth Reproductive and Sexual Health: Findings from Intervention Studies in India
Addressing Gender-Based Constraints in Youth Reproductive Health: Findings from Intervention Studies in India
Addressing Gender-Based Constraints in Youth Reproductive Health: Experiences and Behaviors about Infertility among Young Couples in Rural Maharashtra, India
Delaying Age at Marriage in Rural Maharashtra, India
Reducing Anemia and Changing Dietary Behaviors among Adolescent Girls in Maharashtra, India
Building Life Skills to Improve Adolescent Girls' Reproductive and Sexual health, Tigri, Delhi
Replicating an Adolescent Girls' Reproductive and Sexual Health Program in Naglamachi, Delhi
Reproductive and Sexual Health Education, Care and Counseling for Married Adolescents in Rural Maharashtra, India
Reducing Reproductive Tract Infections among Married Youth in Rural Tamil Nadu, India
Role of Mothers-in-Law in Young Women's Reproductive Health: Evidence from Intervention Research in Rural Maharashtra, India
Social Mobilization or Government Services: What Influences Married Adolescents' Reproductive Health in Rural Maharashtra, India?

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This report examines the occurrence of female genital cutting (FGC), common rationales for its practice, and its prevalence. Efforts to eliminate the practice are also explored within the context of an emerging human rights framework. The final section of the document reports on the Promoting Women in Development (PROWID) International Consultation on FGC and makes recommendations on how practitioners, donors and policymakers can best enable communities to abandon the practice of female genital cutting.

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission must be part of the standard package of care for HIV-positive women. ICRW and the Population Council offer recommendations to policymakers and program managers on how to include community participation, education and mobilization in efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmissions.

These factsheets discuss the harmful practice of child marriage and how it adversely affects the health, education and livelihoods of millions of adolescent girls. Also included are promising community-based approaches to reducing child marriage.

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Child Marriage and Domestic Violence
Child Marriage and Education
Child Marriage and Health
Child Marriage and Poverty
Child Marriage, Laws and Civil Society Action
Child Marriage By the Numbers
Child Marriage Around the World
Success on the Ground: Reducing Child Marriage

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The Development Initiative Supporting Healthy Adolescents (DISHA) was one of the first large-scale integrated programs in India to address the broader context of young people's sexual and reproductive health needs. In addition to providing youth with sexual and reproductive health information and services, the program sought to tackle the social and economic constraints that often limit their choices and actions. This report includes findings from the DISHA program and implications for future large-scale programs for adolescent reproductive health in India.

This paper argues that maternal health is central to the multiple aspects of many women’s lives, and is critically important for development goals more broadly. As such, maternal health is connected with women’s lives and options as individuals, the well-being of their children and families, and the economic productivity of their countries. The evidence reviewed indicates that a woman’s ability to survive pregnancy and childbirth is closely related to how effectively societies invest in and realize the potential of women–one half of their populations–not only as mothers, but as critical contributors to sustaining families and transforming nations. When investments in women lag, the economic cost of maternal death and illness is enormous.

ICRW worked with three NGOs in India to plan and implement simple and affordable monitoring and evaluation approaches for their current and future adolescent reproductive health projects.