Growing Up GREAT!: The Way Forward / « Bien Grandir : La Voie à Suivre ! »

Background
Very young adolescence (ages 10-14 years) is a critical window for promoting positive youth development and sexual and reproductive health (SRH); however, limited evidence exists to guide programming which promotes healthy transitions from early adolescence to young adulthood.

Our Goal
GEH’s Growing Up GREAT!-The Way Forward project (2018-2024) brought together implementers, researchers, and scale-up experts to adapt, generate data on, and scale the Growing Up GREAT! (GUG) intervention in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The intervention is a multilevel gender-transformative sexuality education program for boys and girls ages 10-14 years, and their caregivers, teachers, and healthcare providers. generated evidence on the value of working with early adolescents to foster healthy SRH behaviors and gender equitable relationships. The project also documented how to scale intervention elements within government structures for long-term sustainability.

Approach
GEH established partnerships with local stakeholders (ministry partners, community-based organizations, and implementing partners) early on in the seven-year project via a stakeholder advisory board. Together, board members and GUG consortium partners collaboratively:

• Adapted and implemented GUG in Kinshasa
• Shared data and learnings across partners for continuous learning and adaptive management
• Conducted a longitudinal cohort study to examine GUG’s immediate outcomes and long-term impact; and
• Contributed to the global evidence-base on how gender attitudes, behaviors, and norms are formed and transformed

Impact
GUG led to significant changes for boys and girls – and their caregivers – on reproductive health knowledge, skills, and gender awareness. Teachers and healthcare reported improved adult-child communication skills and gender-equitable behavior. By engaging local stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, GUG also had strong buy-in and ownership in the DRC. This is evidenced by the decision of the Ministry of Health to integrate GUG into its National Program for Adolescent Health strategic plan (2021–2025).

Resources
To learn more about the legacy of GUG and to access resources on implementation, monitoring, evaluation, scale-up, and sustainability, please visit: www.growingupgreat.org.