Projet Jeune
Leader prepares for major scale-up in Madagascar, targeting 400,000 additional
teenagers in 2025 

The rollout of this comprehensive sexuality education program represents a major milestone. Led by the Ministry of National Education, this scale-up will expand and consolidate the approach launched by the NGO Projet Jeune Leader in 2013.

Developed by the NGO Projet Jeune Leader, this program is founded on the idea that comprehensive sexuality education in schools is a key strategy for preventing teenage pregnancies and reducing school dropouts. According to the Malagasy Ministry of Health, 32% of girls become pregnant before they reach adulthood. These often unwanted teenage pregnancies prevent young women from continuing their education and entering the job market, forcing them to remain in poverty.

Since 2013, the NGO has been running a comprehensive education program in middle schools to teach young adolescents about puberty and sexual health, develop their life skills, and provide social and emotional support. The NGO sets up a range of essential new services in rural public middle schools: weekly educational sessions based on a curriculum of 108 varied modules (menstrual health, gender equality, self-esteem, leadership, interpersonal communication skills, etc.) for students in grades 6 to 9; as well as individual counseling for pupils and participatory workshops for parents. Several studies have demonstrated improvements in students' knowledge of health issues, self-esteem, and leadership skills, between the beginning and end of the school year.

The PJL team has developed its model by focusing on rural areas in Madagascar. "Communities were very supportive and we regularly engaged with government stakeholders. Our advocacy work did not involve reports or conferences. We invited public education officials to come and see our work firsthand, talked about real change in communities, and gave decision-makers the opportunity to hear directly from school principals and teachers."

Since its foundation, the Projet Jeune Leader team has been working to integrate the program in school curriculums for the long term. "The main questions have always been: How can we scale-up this program to the next level? And how do we ensure that it continues in the future?" says Maia Ramarosandratana, Director and Founder of Projet Jeune Leader.

FID provided the essential financial support needed to adapt this program for wider scale-up. The program was previously delivered in public middle schools by young adults recruited from the general public and dubbed the "Young Leaders". Projet Jeune Leader used the support from FID to demonstrate that teachers from the Ministry of National Education have the motivation, capacity, and skills required to deliver the program in their schools, with results comparable to those of the Young Leaders. This trial run confirmed that scaling up the program was feasible when led by teachers from the Ministry of National Education, with technical support from the NGO.

FID is delighted that the government has invested in this program led by an NGO. The move to scale up the program has been successful, but, as Maia Ramarosandratana highlights, it brings new challenges, such as "monitoring and maintaining the same level of quality of the program, supporting the long-term institutionalization of comprehensive sexuality education within the school system, and conducting research to fully understand how this model works on a large scale." The team plans to conduct an impact evaluation for the program following its wider scale-up.