Growing Up GREAT! The Way Forward

Growing Up Great: The Way Forward (TWF), the follow-on phase of Growing Up GREAT! (GUG!), applies a longitudinal perspective, strong implementation learning agenda and vision of sustainability at scale to explore the hypothesized bridge from puberty to family planning user among very young adolescents aged 10 to 14. Our consortium – Save the Children, the Global Early Adolescent Study/Johns Hopkins University (GEAS-JHU) and the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH)/Georgetown University, brings together implementers, researchers, scale-up experts and implementation scientists to generate evidence on the value of investing in interventions with early adolescents in order to foster effective contraceptive use as they enter older adolescence and young adulthood. The intermediate outcomes are: 1) Build understanding of how gender attitudes, behaviors, and norms are formed and transformed among very young adolescents, and their medium-term life course trajectories; 2) Institutionalize GUG! within the Ministry of Education and community-based partners in Kinshasa; and 3) Generate knowledge on how to sustain and scale gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) interventions for early adolescents, including the feasibility and acceptability of engaging parents.