The Department of Health (DOH) embarked on a Project entitled Development of Behavior Change Communication (BCC) Strategy for Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy as part of its Adolescent and Youth Health and Development (AYHD) Program. The Project generally aims to contribute to the reduction of adolescent pregnancy through behavior
change communication strategies. It specifically seeks to promote positive and responsible sexual behavior among adolescents to enable them to prevent early and unintended adolescent pregnancy and its concomitant consequences. In general, the Project aims to contribute to the reduction of early and unintended pregnancy among adolescents aged 10-19 years through the promotion of positive and responsible sexual behaviors. Responsible sexual behaviors include delayed sexual initiation, protected sex, and refraining from risky sexual behaviors such as engaging with multiple sex partners and commercial sex. Specifically the project aims to: 1. Establish a database on adolescent pregnancy that includes the identified behavioral and non-behavioral factors that affect the sexual behaviors of adolescents; 2 2. Identify the behavioral and non-behavioral causes of adolescent pregnancy; 3. Identify and analyze the desired behaviors and the barriers to the performance of these behaviors; 4. Analyze the communication factors including the target audiences, accessible media, possible communication channels, and other factors that affect the effective conveyance of communication messages; and 5. Design BCC strategies for adolescent pregnancy based on the analysis of the causal and communication factors. This final report provides an overall perspective of the processes and activities undertaken in order to come up with the expected outputs of the Project which include the development of a Sourcebook on BCC strategies and useful tools for BCC planning that can be used by DOH and its partners in adolescent health and development. In particular, this final report aims to: 1. document the accomplished strategies, activities, and tasks realized during the course of the Project and up to its completion; 2. provide discussion on the gaps and issues encountered during the implementation of the Project; and 3. discuss the lessons learned and the recommended strategies that can be undertaken by DOH and various agencies in order to improve Behavioral Change Communication and similar initiatives.