Behavioral and Community Health Sciences Professor Jessica Burke, PhD, MHS, and Assistant Professor Sara Baumann, PhD, MPH, have received $400,000 in funding from the Spencer Foundation to support a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and Projet Jeune Leader to improve comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for adolescents across Madagascar.
Building on their prior work with Projet Jeune Leader (PJL), a community-based organization in Madagascar that delivers CSE in public middle schools, Burke and Baumann will develop a long-term strategy and five-year action plan to confront educational inequities and promote sustainable change.
“Using a community-engaged approach and human centered and participatory research methods allows us to capture a depth of information about experiences, motivations, beliefs and desires,” explains Burke, also the new associate vice chancellor for global affairs for the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, effective September 1. “In our work, stakeholders are engaged from the beginning, and we work together to explore needs and create people-focused solutions.”
In-school CSE is especially needed in low-income countries where youth, particularly girls, often face serious threats to their well-being from violence, childhood marriage, early and unintended pregnancy, and school dropout. Nearly half of population in Madagascar is under 15 years old and one-third of girls become mothers before the age of 18, underscoring the need for comprehensive sexuality education in the region.
The three-year grant will allow the partnership to continue their collaborative efforts in community-engaged youth empowerment programming and evaluation.
“We are really excited to further strengthen our partnership with University of Pittsburgh researchers with the support of the Spencer Foundation,” said Laura Leeson, director of evaluation and strategic development at PJL. “This will enable us to build a critical evaluation tool developed from Malagasy youth’s voices and experiences. We expect that this research-practice collaboration will help to improve, grow, and sustain our CSE model by bringing youth empowerment to the forefront of this important work.”
“The need for compassion and active listening in community work is a global one,” added Burke. “We are grateful to the Spencer Foundation for their support and commitment to engage underrepresented communities across the country. We expect these efforts will result in improved health and educational outcomes for Madagascar youth and will serve as a global model for efforts to promote education in equitable ways.”
-Clare Collins