This new initiative, provisionally titled Adolescents Thrive: African Adolescents Bolstered through Local Evidence (AABLE), aims broadly to improve reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health outcomes in Africa, but with a primary focus on adolescent health and gender equality. It will close knowledge gaps related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health, strengthen capacities in related implementation research and generate evidence to inform policymaking and promote innovative solutions tailored to the unique ASRH challenges faced by each country.

The International Development Research Centre Global Health division is launching this anticipatory call for select countries in Africa for implementation research projects to reduce knowledge gaps related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), strengthen capacities in implementation research and generate evidence to inform policymaking and promote innovative solutions tailored to the unique challenges faced by each country.

Objectives

• To support locally led implementation research projects that address country-specific gender-responsive adolescent sexual and reproductive health priorities, and to support research capacity and processes for evidence-informed policymaking.
• Support locally led implementation research projects to address country-specific adolescent sexual and reproductive health priorities by generating high quality, actionable evidence related to implementing effective, gender-responsive adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs and services in selected countries in Africa.
• Increase knowledge sharing and collaborative learning exchange within and across countries on successful innovations in implementing ASRH programs and effective, gender-responsive strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of adolescents.
• Strengthen in-country capacity for evidence production, translation and timely use to inform gender-responsive decisions by policymakers in the government and civil society sectors responsible for adolescent health program implementation and outcomes.
• Integrate a strong gender lens in the generation, translation and use of the evidence base to respond to the special needs of girls and boys and improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Africa.
• Two calls are planned to achieve AABLE’s objectives:
  • Call for proposals for an Africa evidence-use expert organization: A separate call for proposals will support one Africa evidence-use expert organization (AEO) to strengthen the capacities of implementation research teams (RTs), including national decision-makers, in knowledge translation (KT) and evidence-informed policymaking (EIP), nurture collaboration and engagement with relevant stakeholders and position evidence for use.
  • A call for proposals for research teams: The overall goal of this call for proposals will be to support RTs conducting action-oriented research that applies a gender-equality and a health-equity lens to understand the challenges and opportunities for improving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) for adolescents in eligible countries.

Thematic Focus

• Applicants are required to design their research proposals based on national priorities in ASRH, and address topics relevant to at least one of the following four themes.
  • Service Delivery Models
    • Focus: Models of service delivery and the impact of integration on outcomes related to ASRH:
      • Integrating ASRH education and services into primary health care settings, in school-based programs and through community-based outreach programs is essential for improving adolescents' access to essential care. For example, proposals may consider implementation research to assess the feasibility, acceptability, or effectiveness of addressing supply-side and/or demand-side constraints to the delivery of quality ASRH services at scale through one or more of the three service delivery platforms: health facilities, schools, or communities. Implementation research could examine viable options for integrating ASRH in mainstream health services while catering to the unique biological and social needs and constraints of adolescents.
  • Social, Economic, or Multisectoral Policy Interventions
    • Focus: Examining the implementation of pathways for structural policy interventions to improve ASRH
      • Adolescents in Africa are particularly under-served, and experience socio-cultural, financial, gender and other systemic barriers to access health information and services which result in poor health outcomes. Advocates have encouraged and supported countries to adopt policies aimed at overcoming many of these structural and systemic barriers, ranging from child marriage or female genital mutilation (FGM) prevention laws to cash transfer and social protection programs that support and/or incentivize better health, education, empowerment and wellbeing for the most disadvantaged adolescents, especially girls.
  • Data and Health Management Information Systems (HMIS)
    • Focus: Improve the availability, use and interoperability of HMIS to support improved adolescent health outcomes:
      • Improving the health of women, children and adolescents around the world should ideally be based on decisions made using reliable health management information systems (HMIS).
  • Digital Health Technologies
    • Focus: How digital tools and technologies can enhance the reach and coverage of services related to ASRH:
      • Digital health interventions including using artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly recognized as vital tools for enhancing adolescent health information and services across Africa. These interventions offer opportunities to improve access, quality of services, engagement and outcomes, and present the potential to convey information and service options to adolescents on sensitive issues related to ASRH without intermediaries.

Funding Information

• As a result of this anticipatory call, up to eight grants of up to CAD692,000 will be issued.
• The project duration will not exceed 30 months, including all research activities and final reporting, with an anticipated start date by November 1, 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

• Only proposals that meet the eligibility criteria list below will be considered. Applicants can apply alone or as a consortium of up to three organizations (led by one of the organizations).
• Applicant organization/s are based in one of the following thirteen eligible countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• The Lead Applicant Organization must have independent legal status (or “legal personality”) and be capable of contracting in their own right and name, receiving and administering funds, and have authority to direct proposed project activities. Applicants must be able to demonstrate legal status through written documentation.
• If proposing a consortium, the Lead Applicant Organization must also demonstrate its ability to transfer funds to other countries where other consortium members are located.
• Applicant organizations must be eligible to conduct or coordinate independent research in study countries.
• Applicant organizations have a corporate policy to allow researchers to publish in the international academic literature without institutional restrictions.
• Each funded project must have:
  • A principal applicant/Principal Investigator (PI) who is a sub-Saharan Africa-based researcher (citizen or permanent resident of an African country) with a position in an institution based in an eligible country where the research will take place.  The principal applicant (PI) will be the implementation research team lead and will work in close collaboration with the following mandatory co-applicant for decision-making (DM) and other members of the team:
  • Co-principal applicant(s) for decision making (co-PI for DM) who is/are a relevant national-level decision-maker in ASRH. If the research is planned in only one country, this co-applicant must be based in the same country as the principal applicant’s institution. If the research is planned in multiple countries, there must be one co-applicant eligible decision-maker from each. Decision-makers must have within their responsibility and authority to support the identification of research questions, implementation of research (where appropriate) and uptake of results at the appropriate level. If a co-principal applicant decision-maker is not from a government entity, the implementation research team needs to justify how the chosen decision-maker has the ability to support the research, act to implement the research findings and influence relevant levels of government. Women and other under-represented people in decision-maker positions are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more information, visit IDRC.