Research to Action: Improving the Quality of Care and Access to Sexual Health and HIV Services among Youth-Headed Households in Kenya

Youth aged 15 to 24 years in sub-Saharan Africa have been identified as vulnerable to HIV. Youth-headed households, YHH, are particularly sexually vulnerable due to social and physical isolation and socioeconomic deprivation. In Kenya, youth sexual health has been a focus of policy efforts and yet new HIV infections among youth remains a concern, particularly for young women who are four times more likely to be infected with HIV than young men. As such, a community-based research project was designed and carried out in 2010-11 with YHH in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya in order to understand social and structural factors impacting youth's sexual vulnerability and strengths and gaps in health and social services. This proposal outlines a dissemination strategy that will support further mutual sharing through Action Groups, where researchers, youth and knowledge users, namely policy-makers, decision-makers and community leaders, will collaboratively interpret research findings and develop key messages for development of materials (i.e. policy briefs, research summary, training modules). In the second stage, evidence-based research findings will be shared through community, provincial and national level stakeholder forums where youth will be engaged as communicators, using creative methods such as performance. Trainings will also be held for health practitioners and youth to enhance capacity and collaboration to improve sexual health services and support to youth. The proposed community-driven, collaborative and multi-sectoral dissemination strategy has potential to influence health and social policy and programs around youth sexual health and HIV in Kenya and it is hoped that this will ultimately reduce vulnerability to HIV among youth and increase quality and access to services. This proposal will provide evidence based guidance for knowledge users, including youth, in order to act and seek to address health and social inequities in society.