Adolescent & Youth Unit, Ministry of Health, Republic of Liberia

WORLD BANK LIBERIA COUNTRY OFFICE HAS PROVIDED ONE MILLION USD TOWARDS THE FULLY ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ADOLESCENT & YOUTH UNIT AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SET OF PROGRAMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR A PERIOD OF 18 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!

WORLD BANK LIBERIA COUNTRY OFFICE HAS PROVIDED ONE MILLION USD TOWARDS THE FULLY ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ADOLESCENT & YOUTH UNIT AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SET OF PROGRAMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR A PERIOD OF 18 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!

On Behalf of the Adolescent and Youth Unit, at the Liberian Ministry of Health, we would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the World Bank Country Office, through its Country Manager for providing 1 Million United States Dollars intended to support the full establishment of the Unit, and implementation of a set of agreed activities integrated in the Investment Case for a period of 18 months across Liberia, but Grand Bassa County as a pilot point.

Management and Coordination:
The overall management of the Adolescent and Youth Unit will be under the Director of Family Health Division at the Ministry of Health supported by the Adolescent Health Coordinator and the Technical Advisor. The Project will have a dedicated M&E specialist, An Adolescent and Youth Coordinator and three program officers as full time staff, whose main responsibilities will be to oversee implementation, work as liaison officers with line ministries, and manage data production, collection, analysis and presentation.

o Recruit support and remunerate 4 staff,
o Procurement of needed equipment and electronics (Computers, photocopiers, printers etc) and A vehicle to support coordination and support supervision activities

Adolescent Reproductive Health and Development Policy
o Undertake learnings visits to countries with similar programs
o Conduct situation analyses to identify advocacy needs.
o Develop a multi sectoral adolescent health strategy
o Conduct advocacy campaigns through workshops and seminars.
o Develop training curriculum on adolescent life skills
o Hold regular planning meetings for all stakeholders at all levels.
o Hold regular joint review meetings with development partners and implementers.
o Support supervision and steering committee meetings

Improve quality of Reproductive Health services that are provided to adolescents
This will be done through a combination of approaches that include but are not limited to:
• Develop a standardized curriculum for Like skills training
• Conduct training of trainers (TOT) and training of facilitators (TOF) in life skills.
• Carry out training on life planning skills for peer educators.
• Conduct training in packaging and dissemination of reproductive health information.
• Establish and upgrade youth centres and clubs & Build capacities within the centres to communicate positive reproductive health messages; conduct life skills training; and offer safe space for young people to gather.
• Provide additional incentive to health workers to open clinics longer
• Train health workers in adolescent health friendly service delivery

Ministry of Health is also cognizant of that fact that youth and adolescent concerns go beyond health; to ensure a healthy and involved youth and adolescent group, Ministry of health proposes to integrate ARH with livelihood programs. This will involve among others: Establishing and strengthening income-generating programs for socio-economic empowerment of young people. The intent is to build capacities within youth centres to not only communicate positive reproductive health messages but also act as platforms for continued youth engagement. The proposed plan is to establish and strengthen partnership between micro-credit programs and ARH programs:
• Conduct training in micro-finance management.
• Conduct vocational training for young people.
• Provide seed grants to micro finance projects in the community

An Adolescents & Youth Unit has been established at the Liberian Ministry of Health.

Tackling Adolescents and youth Sexual reproductive health through youth-led strategy by the Government of Liberia! This is in fulfillment of the Ministry's bold step to domesticate and implement the African Youth Charter; inclusion of youth in decision and giving them space at the "Top Table".

Adolescents and youth Sexual reproductive health is a concept that is often tossed around, but what does it mean? It means having the ability to decide on ones s*xual health and to be able to live a life free from fear, harm, or discrimination. It means being able to express your s*xuality and s*xual identity with dignity. It means honoring privacy and s*xual health. It means enjoying a safe, satisfying s*x life and s*xual expression free of prejudice. Simply put, it is enjoyment of personal autonomy and bodily integrity.

Jarius Andrew Greaves
Youth Representative, Ministry of Health, R/L
Coordinator, Adolescent and Youth Unit

Adolescents and Youth Unit Team at a video conferencing at the World Bank Liberia Country Office on Wednesday, Feb. 1,2017.

Discussion was centered on integrating Adolescents health into the Investment Case.

The Team was represented by Dr. Joseph L. Kerkula, Director, Family Health Division, J. Andrew Greaves, Youth Representative-MOH/ Coordinator, Adolescents and Youth Unit, Ms. Chrisneh Mulbah, AYU, and Ms. Georgia Manue, AYU.

One week to the celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child-2016, the Youth Unit planed for the Ministry to join the world over to celebrate IDGC-2016 through the distribution of assorted school materials including copybooks, pencils, and geometric sets among others to F-Sham Faith of Girls School, an all-girls school in Soul Clinic, Paynesville. After some consultations, especially with the Warehouse, the Unit was assured of receiving these supplies, but must be requested for through the office of the Comptroller. On October 10, 2016, the request as prepared, signed by Dr. Kerkula, but due to the absence of Dr. Samsom Arzoaquoi, Assistant Minister for Preventive Services to approve, the distribution delayed close to two weeks.

When the request as approved, the Unit received 2010 pieces of copybooks and 6 packs of pencils from the Warehouse. In consultation and with the guidance of Dr. Kerkula, the Unit changed its initial plan to distribute these materials to three public schools in Paynevsille instead of F-Sham Faith of Girls School. The schools include; J.C.N. Howard Elementary School, located Joe Bar, Mary T. Broh Institute, located Rock Hill, GSA Road Community and Kendeja Elementary School, located Kendeja Community.

On Thursday, the Acting Director of the Family Health, Mr. Lawrence provided vehicle, while Hon. Zolia provided fuel that facilitated the Youth Representative and two volunteers to have visited the three schools and distributed those materials on behalf of the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Dahn and their immediate supervisor, Dr. Kerkula. They informed the schools’ principals that it was the Ministry of Health way of joining the world over to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child in Liberia, which calls for a global effort to ensure a world free of discrimination for young women and girls. They further said, this year’s theme focuses on adolescent girls and the Sustainable Development Goals, which set a range of local, national and international targets, including girls’ access to education and needed instructional materials, to be achieved by 2030. In return, the schools’ principals, expressed thanks and appreciations to the Ministry and further requested for a continual partnership and cordial working relationship to help inspire, motivate and roll-out some of its schools related programs in their schools.

The distributions are as follows:

J.C.N. Howard Elementary School------------ 670 pcs and 2 packs of pencils
Mary T. Broh Institute-----------------------------670 pcs and 2 parks of pencils
Kendeja Elementary School---------------------670 pcs and 2 parks of pencils