This resource is also available in French. Click here to access the French version.
At the intersection of health, education, and gender equality, comprehensive sexuality education is a powerful mechanism that equips young people with practical knowledge and skills. Yet, around the world, sex ed is still sensitive and politically charged—especially in schools.
In Madagascar, the youth-led organization Projet Jeune Leader has been implementing an innovative comprehensive sexuality education program in public middle schools since 2013, today reaching over 50,000 young adolescents a year across 148 schools. Projet Jeune Leader’s specialized sexuality educators teach a holistic sex ed and life skills curriculum in addition to offering youth-friendly counseling services and other programming.
Rather than opposing Projet Jeune Leader’s program, local communities—students, parents, school teachers, and school principals—have become champions. Students and parents from other schools have even hand-written letters requesting Projet Jeune Leader bring comprehensive sexuality education to their school, after hearing about how it has brought multifaceted benefits in other areas. Madagascar’s Ministry of Education has endorsed the program and is helping scale it across the country.
For Projet Jeune Leader, transparency and accountability to program beneficiaries/constituents are not a “nice to have” add-on. It’s core to effective, equitable, sustainable, comprehensive sexuality education.
The organization recently developed a number of resources to share its tools and processes. The publication and resource library “CSE We Can Count On” gives concrete examples of how they have built community support, from creative magazines to intentional linguistic choices to amplifying voices of local champions. In an interactive brief, Projet Jeune Leader explores how sexuality educators can be key to influencing support for comprehensive sexuality education.
