Peer Approach in Adolescent Reproductive Health Education: Some Lessons Learned

According to UNESCO Asia and Pacific Bureau for Education, Thailand, there is an increasing effort in countries in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to use a peer approach in adolescent programmes and activities to facilitate communication of various messages. This booklet synthesises these experiences and shares lessons learned, offering guidelines designed to help policy makers and programme implementers learn from others and possibly adopt/adapt those strategies to their own settings.

The booklet is divided into the following sections:

• Chapter One: What is peer education? - defines peer education; explores how it came about and came to be recognised as a strategy for reaching youth with reproductive and sexual health messages; sketches the theoretical models in which the peer approach is grounded; and describes the characteristics and role of the peer educator.
• Chapter Two: Why use peer education? - justifies using peer education in changing attitudes and behaviour.
• Chapter Three: What research says about the peer approach - synthesises findings from research assessing the influence and impact of peer education on teen pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV/AIDS prevention, and overall knowledge of reproductive and sexual health, based on experiences in Ghana, Cambodia, China, India, and other countries from other continents.
• Chapter Four: Lessons learned - compiles lessons from many research studies showing what makes a peer education programme work.
• Chapter Five: Guidelines - presents a series of guidelines to address different aspects of adolescent reproductive health intervention planning and implementation. Includes tips for working with youth, working with adults, and sample lesson plans from a peer educators' training manual.