Divercsefy

According to UNESCO there are over 200 million adolescents, who are out of school globally, a majority of whom do not have access to comprehensive sexuality education. The educational system in Nigeria operates a 6-3-3-4 model, with 6 years of primary education (both primary school and junior secondary school education make up the basic education years), 3 years of junior secondary education, 3 years of senior secondary education, and 4 years of tertiary education. Although basic education is deemed “compulsory”, an estimated 10.5 million children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Even more young people do not proceed to junior and senior secondary schools and proceed to learn a trade or vocation. 

In Lagos, young people account for half of the state population of twenty (20) million with many of them either out of school or in non-formal educational settings. Despite the presence of legal and policy frameworks that support inclusive education, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with disabilities are disproportionately affected and make up the larger percentage of out-of-school youth.

The problem at hand is not just about education; rather, it is about a broader issue of access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) among out-of-school youths (OOSY). This lack of access is a major contributor to a range of issues, including high rates of unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and sexual exploitation among these young people. Over the years, poverty, gender inequality, conflict and displacement in certain parts of the country have been attributed to the number of OOSY population. Studies have revealed that young people who are not in the formal school system are at a higher risk of sexual coercion (Kofoworola et al, 2014), they are more likely to be sexually exploited, contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs), experience unplanned pregnancies and abuse substances. They are also more likely to experience violence, abuse, and neglect. 

Unlike their counterparts within the formal school system who access sexual reproductive health and rights information through the Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE) curriculum, out-of-school youths do not have access to information that addresses their peculiar needs and challenges as they grow. Consequently, they remain ill-equipped to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, leaving them at a higher risk of negative outcomes that perpetuate a cycle of violence and poverty. 

Our innovation is an interactive e-handbook and website on comprehensive sexuality education designed for out-of-school youths enrolled in non-formal educational settings the state. It leverages a physical handbook we have recently developed that includes 9 modules and 35 topics focused on various aspects of comprehensive sexuality education including human body and development, disability, personal skills and values, gender, relationships, sexual reproductive health, rights, mental health, substance abuse, and an introduction to ICT and  Innovation. 

The e-handbook engages storytelling techniques and engaging digital comic illustrations to enhance engagement among users; interactive games/activities on each topic to ensure learning retention; an equally engaging audio feature primarily to address the needs of persons with hearing impairments and to also encourage on-the-go learning. The interactive e-book also includes a directory of places to get help, providing direct links to websites and contact details of youth-friendly health centres close to users where they can receive care following threats or incidences of gender-based violence, mental health breakdowns and substance abuse addictions.

While the existing physical handbook is expected to serve persons who cannot access digital devices, we understand the complexities around internet access for our target population due to the lack of affordability and relatively lower access to digital devices. Thus, the e-handbook does not require internet access beyond the initial download to maximize most features. However, our solution (the interactive e-handbook and website) is designed to complement the website hosting more extensive resources including short videos summarising each module's content and additional quizzes.

The primary users of our solution are out-of-school youth currently enrolled in non-formal educational settings in Lagos State (including vocational schools, technical schools and (special) schools for young persons with visual and hearing impairments. The secondary users of the platform will be out-of-school youth not enrolled in non-formal educational institutions.
We understand the limitations that exist with developing solely an e-handbook and 

Additionally, we expect that the e-handbook and website will serve as a platform for supplementary content to close the knowledge gaps of in-school students who are impacted by the present-day limitations around the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education in schools.

In June 2018, shortly after I began to volunteer with the United Nations Population Fund Youth Participatory Platform (UNFPA YPP) in Lagos, the state Ministry of  Youth and Social Development was exploring interventions to address the needs of youth populations that had been left behind in programmatic efforts. This birthed the integration of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education program into non-formal educational settings in the state–a process supported by the UNFPA. Since then I have worked alongside team members (some of whom were the Assistant Director and Head of Education and Engagement Unit in the Ministry and the Project Consultant) on the integration of CSE delivery to out-of-school youth in Lagos. These phases include multi-level stakeholder meetings, capacity building for instructors, a youth-led landscaping and desk review process, drafting of a CSE curriculum and manual, validation of both documents by stakeholders, mapping of technical and vocational schools and assessment of CSE among adolescents and young adults in technical and vocational schools. These phases were co-designed with vulnerable groups of young people including those not in schools, vocational and technical school instructors and representatives of young persons with disabilities. 

In fact, the development of further resources, including a handbook, to aid learning was one of the proposed recommendations from a study conducted in 2022 to assess the implementation of the pilot phase in 13 of the 22 government-owned vocational and technical schools. We have since then also worked with representatives of young people with disabilities in the state to develop a braille version of a CSE Manual for out-of-school youth with visual impairments. In addition, during the drafting of the physical copy of the student handbook in August 2023, we conducted a pretest among over 28 students across 5 non-formal educational schools to assess the content of the handbook to assess that the content is age-appropriate and evaluate any quizzes, tests, or activities included in the handbook to ensure they align with the content and learning objectives. Our team members represent various stakeholder groups including adolescents and young people, the Education and Engagement Unit of the Youth Development Department in the Ministry and the academia. As evidenced above, this offers us a unique opportunity to co-create the various components of our solution alongside the communities we serve.

Our parent initiative was developed and rolled out in 13 out of the 22 technical and vocational centres within the state. In the last two years, it has provided almost 8,000 out-of-school adolescents and young people aged 15-35 (three-quarters of whom were female and one-quarter male) with essential information, contributing to the creation of a more supportive environment for young people to learn about their sexuality and reproductive health. 

However, a paper book version of the handbook has just been recently developed, which would form the basis of the interactive  e-handbook and website content to reach a wider audience.

Our solution is the first of its kind for out-of-school youths in Lagos State and in South West, Nigeria. It addresses both health and social inequalities by providing vulnerable youth populations with health information and innovation approaches by leveraging the internet where a majority of the users are young people. Unlike their counterparts within the formal school system who access sexual reproductive health and rights information through the Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE) curriculum, out-of-school youths did not have access to information that addresses their peculiar needs and challenges as they grow. Consequently, they remain ill-equipped to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, leaving them at a higher risk of negative outcomes that perpetuate a cycle of violence and poverty. Also, prior to now, CSE has been delivered using traditional teaching methods. 

Additionally, in November 2022, the federal government issued a directive to exclude sex education from formal school curriculums. By offering a platform and resource where any young person can access sexuality education, the innovation can help minimise the loss of gains from the delivery of CSE for in-school youths in the past years.

Within the next year, we aim to double our users from 8,000 to 16,000 with 50% of them from across the 22 government-owned vocational and technical schools in Lagos and another 50% who are not in non-formal educational settings but possess any form of digital devices. Our target is to expand our services to the six South West, Nigerian states within five years and leverage learnings from that process to serve as the official comprehensive sexuality education learning platform for out-of-school youths across Nigeria.

The state government drives ownership of the initiative in the state leading to readiness to scale it across the state. By working with the ministries of youth in the states we aim to expand to, we will support them through the processes to adapt our existing curriculum, manual developed with the nuances of out-of-school youths in the region in mind. Our target is to ensure out-of-school youths’ access to SRH information and services, including family planning and the integration of CSE for out-of-school youths into national strategies and programmes for Nigeria. This, we believe, will contribute to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal target 3.7: by 2030. 

The problem that the innovation is addressing is the lack of access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for out-of-school youths (OOSY) in Lagos State, Nigeria. This is a critical issue as CSE empowers young people to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). It provides them with the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended pregnancy, and sexual exploitation.

The solution is a digital CSE platform and an e-handbook that will provide OOSY in Lagos State with access to high-quality, age-appropriate CSE information and resources. The platform will be designed to be accessible, free and engaging for OOSY. It will offer a variety of features, including interactive lessons, quizzes, games, forums, discussion groups, and links to other resources and services. The change process will be implemented in four phases: Develop a CSE curriculum and pilot it small group of OOSY, develop a CSE student handbook, scale up the platform and make it available to all OOSY in Lagos State and evaluate the impact of the platform on the SRHR of OOSY.

The assumptions are that OOSY in Lagos State are interested in learning about CSE, have access to (low-end) smartphones or other internet-connected devices, and will use the platform if it is accessible, affordable, and engaging. A comparative study among 939 students (547 females and 392 males ) showed a significant increase in knowledge of reproductive organs, contraceptives, HIV/PMTCT, gender norms life skills among OOSY youth who had been exposed to CSE. The expectation is that the platform will be effective in increasing OOSY's knowledge of CSE topics and empowering them to make informed decisions about their SRHR. In addition to the above, we are co-creating resources with the population that we serve, a factor critical to the success of the innovation: co-design and participation, sustainability, and equity and inclusion.

The success of the innovation will be measured by tracking the number of OOSY who use the platform, their knowledge of CSE topics and their attitudes towards CSE (using module quizzes and evaluation, and their sexual and reproductive health outcomes (e.g., STI rates, unintended pregnancy rates).

1 full-time staff; 3 contractors; 2 volunteers

We have been working on our solution in the last 6 months. This solution emerged as a component of an ongoing intervention we have been involved in within the last five years to scale the integration of CSE delivery to out-of-school youth.

In the course of our work on driving OOSY access to CSE, these three components have been at the bane of our activity design and implementation. Beginning with the team, each team member represents the unique perspective of women across multiple decades of lived experience (including adolescent and young women) CSE instructors, and government stakeholders. To ensure that the innovation is not just led but also implemented by young people, the design and handbook draft processes were managed by youth consultants with scheduled feedback from a range of out-of-school youth. The need for equity and inclusivity has guided the development of a braille version of a CSE manual on previous phases of our project. In addition to this, it informed the decision to scale our handbook to a website resource and interactive e-handbook to ensure that no one is disadvantaged in accessing information on their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

So far, the initial phases of our solution has been funded primarily using grants from development partners and some secondary funding from the state government. As we push for adaptation by other states, we will sustain this model for the first few three years after which we will develop a version of the solution providing context-specific CSE information to in-school students. Rights to use this version  will be sold as a product to private educational institutions. We aim to deploy funds generated from a combination of all three approaches to periodically review and update our resources.