Gender and Relationships: A Practical Action Kit for Young People

This action kit is for young people and adults who run youth programmes that are looking at issues of sexual and reproductive health, such as life skills and HIV/AIDS. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of gender issues in sexual and reproductive health and to provide practical ideas for introducing gender awareness into existing youth programmes. There are sections that explain what gender is and how it affects our relationships and our sexual and reproductive health. In particular, the kit is designed to help youth leaders to encourage young people to: think about what kind of relationships they want; be aware of how male and female gender roles in their society can affect their relationships; practise developing the life skills they need to form healthy, happy relationships and to protect them from unhealthy and unsafe ones; and work with other young people and/or other members of their community to change negative gender roles.

The first section of the kit has ideas for youth leaders on how to introduce gender issues into their youth programmes. The kit is then divided into three separate sections on gender, gender and relationships, gender and sexual and reproductive health. Each section includes background information, fact sheets and activities. The background information includes facts, figures and quotes that you may want to use with the young people you are working with, for instance as a discussion starter. The fact sheets may be photocopied or shared with the group to support awareness raising and facilitate discussion. The fact sheets are also used in some of the activities.

Click here to download the publication by chapter.