Aims & objectives

The course aims to equip participants with the knowledge, conceptual frameworks and tools necessary to strengthen health sector policies and programmes for adolescent health. Specifically, the course will:

• Provide grounding in the epidemiology, evidence-based interventions and strategies for responding to adolescents' priority health problems
• Equip participants to evaluate evidence and apply it to their work with adolescents
• Guide participants through the steps necessary for the development and integration of adolescent health interventions into national policies, programmes and plans
• Outline key challenges and solutions in developing and implementing interventions for adolescent health
• Equip participants to critically analyse and improve policies and strategies for adolescent health in countries where they work

Course content

• Adolescence and adolescent development
• Theories of risk, vulnerability, resilience and behaviour change
• Epidemiological methods and data specific to adolescent health
• Frameworks for understanding and prioritizing health sector interventions for adolescent health
• Steps to develop and improve health sector policies and plans for adolescent health: situation analysis, surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and adolescent participation
• Approaches to reviewing evidence and carrying out research on adolescent health and development
• Challenges in adolescent health: including sexual and reproductive health, drugs and alcohol, mental health, nutrition, injuries, violence, infectious and non-communicable diseases
• Current focus and priorities of international agencies.

Intended learning outcomes 

• Critically evaluate the measures of burden of adolescent conditions and their application from monitoring to policy evaluation
• Evaluate evidence relating to adolescent health and apply it to the development of policy and programming approaches to improve adolescent health
• Evaluate health system requirements and capacity for addressing adolescent health
• Analyse the policy process and the effectiveness of policy opportunities at different levels from system-wide changes to disease management

Session content

Sessions will be split into the following themes:

• Setting the scene/Epidemiology of adolescent health and well-being
• Programming for adolescent well-being and the importance of intersectional perspectives
• Adolescent's rights, vulnerability, diversity
• Youth engagement and participation
• Adolescent health and well-being in the digital age
• Evidence for action

Teaching methods and course materials

Faculty for the course will include staff who have extensive expertise in health sector programming for adolescent health and development from the School, WHO, the Obafemi Awolowo University (Ile-Ife, Nigeria), Institute of Child Health, University of Ibadan, the Public Health Foundation of India, and UNICEF, as well as staff from other institutions.

The course will be delivered as a hybrid course, with students choosing to participate either in person or online. Teaching will be conducted synchronously and will include pre-recorded case studies. Participants will also have the opportunity to participate in a group project task. The course materials, including PowerPoint presentations and key references, will be provided electronically.