Every young person will one day have life-changing decisions to make about their sexual and reproductive health. Yet research shows that the majority of adolescents lack the knowledge required to make those decisions responsibly, leaving them vulnerable to coercion, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy.
Comprehensive sexuality education enables young people to protect and advocate for their health, well-being and dignity by providing them with a necessary toolkit of knowledge, attitudes and skills. It is a precondition for exercising full bodily autonomy, which requires not only the right to make choices about one’s body but also the information to make these choices in a meaningful way. And because these programmes are based on human rights principles, they advance gender equality and the rights and empowerment of young people.
During the first semester of the project, a total of 12 CSE facilitators were trained on gender-transformative CSE methodologies, all of whom were trained by CEPEP (Paraguay). This represents initial progress towards this output, as it achieves 6% of the overall cumulative target of 170 CSE facilitators trained through the project. For CEPEP (Paraguay) specifically, this represents 55% of their target.
planned to hire a consultant during this period to review and adjust its CSE curriculum, in order to start with the training of facilitators in Year 2. They have made progress in the development of the Terms of Reference (ToR), and the consultancy as well as the implementation of the training program for the facilitators in the new CSE curriculum are expected to be completed during the second project year. CEPAM-G is already in the process of identifying the facilitators who would participate in the CSE training process, ensuring the participation of facilitators who are in the most vulnerable sectors of the city. CEPAM-G has made progress in identifying the community-based and educational institutions through which young people will be reached, engaging in initial contact with the authorities of the institutions and obtaining their approval to implement the CSE curriculum. They have also had meetings with the local education authorities to present the project proposal and assure their involvement in the implementation.
conducted a comparative analysis between its own CSE manual and other one developed by Mexfam. The result was that the CEPEP CSE Manual has more chapters and more practical tools to work with various sectors of the population, and already included the key evidence-based components that made Mexfam’s manual effective, so it did not require adjustments. This comparative study and the presentation of the CEPEP CSE Manual was carried out in a two-day workshop with 12 participants from the CEPEP team. A Training Plan based on the manual was developed and delivered to CEPEP’s clinical professionals virtually and through a face-to-face workshop held on March 29 and 30, 2023. In this workshop, a KAP survey was applied and a replication of the 8 sessions that will be held virtually was planned. CEPEP’s CSE Manual and Training Plan includes, among other topics, a module on gender-based violence, with special emphasis on CSE as a tool for the prevention of violence. Clinical professionals were trained to apply the content and criteria when attending populations that require special care and information. It is expected that during the replications various populations with whom CEPEP clinics work will be reached. (19 professionals from Asunción and 17 professionals from Ciudad del Este).
