Essential Element 2: Navigating the Urban Environment for Youth

Part 2: Essential Elements of SBCC Programs for Urban Adolescents

This Essential Element will help you learn more about the environment in which your audience lives and how to use this information in your SBCC programming. Here are some suggestions for working through this element:

Read the text from beginning to end.
Complete Worksheet #2 with the data you have collected. If you need help filling it in, refer to the example of Worksheet #2 that has been completed with fictional data from the city of Zanbe.
Refer to the resources at the end of this Essential Element as needed.

What is the Purpose of this Essential Element?

The purpose of this Essential Element is to:

Gain insights into the factors that can affect your program—social, economic, demographic or political.
Identify the community leaders or groups who are likely to lend support or oppose your program.

Why is this Important?

To help you understand the urban world in the context of your intended audience, this element provides some activities to conduct with members of the intended audience and community.

An assessment of the urban environment where you will be implementing your program helps to provide insights into the trends or other factors that can affect your program, including:

Social, economic, demographic or political factors (e.g., disease, unemployment, poverty, population size, armed conflict, displacement and natural disasters).
Social norms that could support or prevent the intended behavior change.
Policies or pending legislation that could support or prevent the intended behavior change.
Other organizations currently addressing the SRH problem or audience segment.
Community leaders or groups who are supportive or oppose your program.

If you have worked through Essential Element 1, the research you used for that can help you answer questions about all of these factors. If you are working on this element only, without having completed Essential Element 1, don’t worry. All you will need is data relating to your program, your target group and the city or cities in which you wish to run your program. This data can come from your program or other organizations’ and relevant ministries’ documents, reports, surveys and studies.