The Politics of Policy and Practices to Advance Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services in Nigerian States

The Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services (AYFHS) approach is a guide on how state governments can improve the provision of adolescent and youth reproductive health (AYRH) services based on the needs of young people. Furthermore, Nigeria identifies her AYFHS policy as a strategic approach for advancing the health and development of her adolescent and youth population. The study therefore assessed government and private sector strategies in terms of policies, practices and guidelines for the integration of Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services in Plateau, Kwara and Nasarawa States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Semistructured interviews with 172 key LGA and community stakeholders were conducted to elicit information on the availability, enabling environment and implementation of AYFHS interventions across the selected LGAs. The findings indicated the availability of AYFHS policy in all the study LGAs with low or lack of implementation. Only 39% reported the availability of designated AYFHS primary health care centre with 42% of these PHC having at least trained personnel for AYFHS. Majority of the respondents also reported the non-existence of a budget line for the AYFHS interventions in all the study locations. The level of AYFHS services provided was generally poor with various institutional and behavioural barriers to access to service. Priority for interventions have yielded little to no success at all due to political economy factor such as weak coordination and lack of funds. Basically there is no effective implementation of AYFHS policy in the selected study sites as shown from the results of the study. There is need for actions geared towards putting policies into action in the country.