SAfAIDS Transforming Lives SHARP 2023-2026

As the programme started in July 2023 and follows a financial year of June to July, the following results have been taken from the End-term Review and final narrative report for 2018-2023. - A total of 1,165 policy-makers from Ministries of Gender/Womens Affairs, Health, Education, Justice and Youth from 16 Member States were engaged in regional and national policy advocacy actions relating to a harmonised sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) response for adolescents and young people in SADC, with 12 of 16 SADC Member States validating SADC Sexual Gender-based Violence (SGBV) Response Guidelines. Furthermore, the programme has succeeded in directly sensitising Parliamentarians on issues of SGBV, safe abortion, early and unintended pregnancies and access to contraceptives. - 72% of policy-makers reached by SAfAIDS committed to champion climate action and gender equality in their policy decisions on SGBV and national gender frameworks following training on incorporating climate action into Early and Unintended Pregnancy prevention. - Evidence of increased regional sectoral policy development and dialogue among political, religious, traditional, health and justice leaders on early and unintended pregnancies and safe abortion issues with a key result being the development of a Harmonised Regional Roadmap to Prevent Unsafe Abortion and Early and Unintended Pregnancy (EUP) among adolescent girls and young women. - The Regional My Choice, Our Choice Campaign to end unsafe abortions among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) reached 1,308,289 individuals, both duty bearers and rights holders, in the SADC regionwith safe abortion knowledge, tools and products which contributed to decreased policy-maker resistance to safe abortion and an increased number of policy-makers speaking-out on removing restrictive policies. This also contributed to parliamentarians recommending a SADC Safe Abortion Model Law be developed. In 8 of 16 SADC Member States, policy-makers and leaders advocated for review of abortion-related legislation, resulting in positive shifts in legal environments. - A Regional Coalition of Allies and Champions on Safe Abortion with 18 regional policy-makers, traditional and religious leaders was also created which contributed to reduced resistance in member states to safe abortion and prevention of early and unintended pregnancies. - A total of 127,207 adolescents and young people aged 10-24 years were reached with SRHR and Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) information, skills and tools, through the SAM4SRHR model and MobiSAfAIDS app, in 12 sites in 6 countries. 30,962 of the targeted 39,059 adolescents and young people were registered on the app with 80% of the registered users actively using SAM in advocating duty-bearers to lift barriers to accessing SRH services. Service providers responsiveness to addressing SRH service barriers increased from 30% to 92% as a result. There was also evidence that different countries began to scale-up use of the app in different national health programmes. Of the 130 policy-makers from the 6 countries where 12 SAM4SRHR Sites are established who were trained in Public Resource Management (PRM), 87% committed to using the new skills to work for better SRH services for young people. - Through regional assessments and policy briefs there was an increase in the regional body of knowledge on SGBV, safe abortion and early and unintended pregnancies. The programme created Communities of Practice which created interfaces between policy makers, leaders, young people, CSOs and development partners. During 2024, the following specific results were reported in relation to the SAM4SRHR model and MobiSAfAIDS app (data gathered through SAfAIDS' Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL)): The SAM4SRHR (Social Accountability Monitoring for SRHR) Model is a health systems and public resource management strengthening Model, being rolled-out under one component of the SAfAIDS Regional TLivesSHARP Programme. Results from roll-out of the Model and the MobiSAfAIDS Application from SAM4SRHR Sites in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe include: improved service provider responsiveness to young people's SRH needs, increased empowerment of young people in leading and advocating for their own SRH service access needs and their SRHR by directly interfacing with duty-bearers, decreased stigma and discrimination face by young people seeking SRH services, and increase in diverse young people's self-efficacy and uptake of SRH services. The MobiSAfAIDS App has been utilised by 36,152 diverse adolescents and young people. Of the challenges they have raised through the App, 2,360 have been resolved through the youth-led SAM4SRHR Model advocacy actions with duty-bearers, with 148,881 young people reached and benefitted by the Model and the App, through increased quality and non-discriminatory SRH service access and facing reduced barriers to service access and good sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

The Transforming Lives SHARP Programme's expected impact is adolescents and young people, and vulnerable adolescent girls and young women, are accessing youth-centred sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and have improved SRH outcomes in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, by 2026 and beyond. The impact will be a result of achieving four outcomes: Outcome 1: SADC Member States domesticating Regional Guidelines on Sexual Violence Response among adolescents and young people in the SADC region. Outcome 1 will be achieved through four Outputs: - Member States develop Domestication Plans for the Regional Guidelines on sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) Response among adolescents and young people, which will be tracked using Barometers - A coalition of policy-makers in a "ZeroSGBV4Africa Think-Tank" will be established to analyse Regional Barometers on Domestication Progress, in line with Domestication Plans made by Member States, and make recommendations for accelerating domestication. This analysis will be done through a gender lens. - Policy-makers in the region will be capacitated to apply gender norms transformation (GNT) in policy decisions on SRHR of adolescents and young people, including vulnerable adolescent girls and young women - Evidence generated on the SGBV and gender norms transformation policy environment for adolescents and young people, through a regional rapid assessment Outcome 2: SADC Member States implementing the Regional Roadmap to Prevent Unsafe Abortion and Early and Unintended Pregnancy (EUP) among adolescent girls and young women in the SADC region. Outcome 2 will be achieved through four Outputs: - Policy-makers, Traditional and Religious Leader Champions advocate for a resilient safe abortion and EUP prevention policy environment - Parliamentarians reach consensus on SADC Safe Abortion Model Law, informed by regional rapid assessment on safe abortion policy status - Policy-makers actively participating in Regional My Choice, Our Choice Campaign to end unsafe abortion among adolescent girls and young women in SADC - Evidence generated on capacity gaps in resilience and countering SRHR-opposition (safe abortion, EUP, comprehensive sexuality education) among regional actors through a regional rapid capacity assessment Outcome 3: Adolescents and young people utilising Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) to advocate for youth-centred and gender-responsive SRH services in the SADC region. Outcome 3 will be achieved through four Outputs: - Advocating SADC Ministries of Health and other partners to buy-in to adopting and transitioning of SAM4SRHR Model and MobiSAfAIDS App, as a digital health working approach, to benefit adolescents and young people; - Adolescents and young people-led CSOs and service providers and policy-makers applying SAM to remove barriers to SRH service provision for adolescents and young people; - Capacitating Adolescents and young people-led CSOs in Information Communication Technology (ICT) to advocate to policy-makers on increasing digital health uptake in SRHR service delivery mechanisms; and - Capacitating CSOs working with vulnerable adolescent girls and young women and networks of adolescent boys and young men, in resilience and gender norms transformation to sustain their regional policy advocacy work. Outcome 4: Key actors and partners engaged in Regional Knowledge Exchange and Learning on SGBV, Safe Abortion, EUP and Social Accountability responses for Adolescents and young people in the SADC region. Outcome 4 will be achieved through three Outputs: - Regional knowledge exchange and learning Symposia on Resilient Sustained Regional SGBV, Safe Abortion and EUP Responses; - Documenting and sharing good practices, human interest and most significant change stories at regional policy advocacy platforms; and - Generating innovative and indigenous knowledge products for regional advocacy, which are informed by a Regional Thought-leadership Reference Group on SGBV, Safe abortion and EUP.