This tool is an organized set of questions designed to help practitioners to select, adapt, develop and implement more effective pregnancy, STI and HIV prevention programmes in their communities. It is based on the report, "Sex and HIV Education Programs for Youth: Their Impact and Important Characteristics", which identified 17 common characteristics of programmes found to be effective in changing behaviour that leads to STI, HIV and unplanned pregnancy among young people. The document can also be used to assess curricula and to select one that is likely to be effective at changing behaviour; to adapt curricula to better match the needs and resources of a community; to develop a new curriculum; and to implement a curriculum. The purpose of this document is to guide adolescent reproductive health practitioners, programme developers and evaluators in operationalizing each of the 17 characteristics as they select, modify, develop, implement and/or evaluate sex and HIV education curricula. The tool is divided into six sections. The first three sections describe the three categories of characteristics of effective programmes: - Characteristics describing the process of developing the effective curricula. This category of characteristics is related to the process of developing an adolescent pregnancy or HIV prevention programme or curriculum. - Characteristics describing the contents of effective curricula. These describe the curriculum contents, including the important goals and objectives, concrete activities, teaching strategies, etc. - Characteristics describing the process of implementing the curricula. The three other sections provide a characteristics summary table to help summarize a curricula review; a list of potentially useful resources to support the assessment, adaptation and/or development of prevention programmes with regard to the 17 characteristics; and a glossary of terms.