Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
The Health Policy Research Group (HPRG) has called for the nationwide scaling up of gender-sensitive training for primary health care workers to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services.
Professor Chinyere Mbachu, a researcher with the group, made the call during a one-day policy dialogue organised by HPRG at Cirene Hotel, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
Mbachu said the intervention became necessary after research revealed that many health workers lacked the capacity to deliver gender-equitable services to young people.
According to her, while most health workers are well-intentioned, discriminatory practices often occur — with boys receiving more permissive treatment than girls seeking similar services, especially concerning contraceptives.
“In our primary health care centres, health workers did not realise they were discriminating between boys and girls who needed sexual and reproductive health services,” she said.
“We designed an intervention that combined gender-sensitivity training with community engagement to help overcome these limiting gender norms.”
Since 2022, HPRG has collaborated with ministries, agencies, primary health care workers, community leaders, and young people in Ebonyi State to co-design and implement the intervention.
The project, supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), adopted a three-tier training model — starting with state-level trainers, cascading to officers-in-charge of primary health centres, and finally reaching community health workers.
Mbachu explained that the training was complemented by an “action learning” approach, which brought together trained health workers and community leaders to reflect on their work, share challenges, and develop solutions.
The Professor of Community Medicine, Health Policy and Systems at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, noted that results were evident even during the training sessions, as participants became more aware of their gender biases.
“Health workers began finding creative ways to ensure young people felt comfortable — from creating private spaces in health centres to taking services to locations where youths felt safe,” she explained.
“There was excitement among PHC workers, seeing that they were making a real difference in how young people experienced health services.”
On the next steps, Mbachu stressed the need for national policy revisions to include specific gender-sensitivity training guidelines for service providers.
She also called for the domestication of national SRHR and gender policies at the state level to ensure sustainability beyond individual projects or changes in government leadership.
“Ebonyi State has made commendable progress in adolescent SRHR, thanks to committed programme officers and support from partners. But we must institutionalise these interventions so they continue regardless of who is in office,” she added.
The policy dialogue provided a platform to present the project’s findings, reflect on lessons learned, identify policy priorities for SRHR programming, and explore pathways to institutionalise and scale up the approach nationwide.
