Informing, welcoming, sheltering and re-socializing: Challenges in the management of adolescent girls reproductive health in Senegal

Despite the existence of a legal and institutional arsenal to repress and protect adolescent girls in Senegal, gender-based violence remains high. This constitutes a major challenge for the public authorities in respecting their national and international commitments, especially toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals which would ensure that no one is left behind. At the same time, existing studies show that adolescent girls who are victims of gender-based violence face multiple challenges, including social exclusion and a significant deficit in the enjoyment of their health rights. Solutions have been proposed and implemented to take care of these victims; however, these solutions have shown limited effectiveness so far. They do not consider issues related to accommodation, access to sexual and reproductive health services, and the re-socialization of adolescent girls who are victims of multiple exclusions. What is more, these responses are developed in a sectoral way, are not integrated, and do not sufficiently place the adolescent at the center of the system for finding solutions.

Under the responsibility of Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, through a multi-actor platform that includes young people, this project seeks to produce an integrated alternative model of accommodation, service provision, and legal empowerment of adolescent girls who are victims of gender-based violence and multiple exclusions. This model, which will integrate the interactions between gender-based violence and the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls, will be developed and tested with the Kulimaaro Accommodation Centre, located in Ziguinchor. The project should contribute to the empowerment of adolescent girls by giving them access to integrated information and services as well as mentoring and supervision that will allow them to improve their sexual and reproductive health and to meet the challenges related to social and cultural norms at the outset of their exclusion in order to re-socialize. The institutions and actors involved in the care of victims of gender-based violence will have new knowledge and a reference model that allows a more adequate response to the needs of adolescent girls.

This project is part of the cohort of projects supported by the Program “Improving the Health of Adolescent Girls in Senegal-ADOS” co-funded by CRDI and Global Affairs Canada.