Engagement objective

In 2018 Population Foundation of India was taking its initial steps on working on Adolescents and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (AYSRHR) in Rajasthan. Given the prevalent discomfort of communities and often also of the administration towards government-led SRH programming for unmarried adolescents, the Foundation wanted to understand the perceptions of the state’s policy makers and leaders regarding SRH.

StratComm was mandated to understand these perceptions and outline its implications on programming in the state.

Post the study, we also developed an advocacy strategy and toolkit for the programme.

Our process

It was important to understand the current policy and stakeholder landscape before strategy development could commence. We undertook the perception mapping exercise through a mix of primary and secondary research. Intensive secondary research and analysis was conducted on the states' indicators related to SRH and adolescents. Government policies and programmes were studied, along with the progress in their implementation.

The secondary research’s output provided information on the key challenges that Rajasthan was facing in the domain of SRH for adolescents. Findings from the secondary research formed the basis for the primary research.

In the primary research phase, in-depth discussions were held with the major stakeholders of SRH programming in the state. These included, elected representatives, the media, government officials, and NGOs. The focus was to understand what the opinion makers think about SRH, what do they think are important pathways to achieve AYSRHR goals, and how according to them can AYSRHR services and messages be delivered to adolescents.

Key outcomes

Through intensive research and analysis we arrived at critical insights for the Foundation on:

• Positioning its work on adolescent health.

• Identifying priorities for advocacy.

• Mechanisms for collaboration to promote adolescent health.

The opinion analysis then guided us in developing a strategic framework for advocacy.