Large-scale innovative, integrated, multifaceted adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) interventions are urgently needed in sub-Saharan Africa. Implementation through schools and health facilities may maximize intervention coverage and sustainability, however the impact of the use of these structures on intervention content and delivery is not well documented. This paper describes the rationale and design of a large-scale multifaceted ASRH intervention, which was developed and evaluated over three years in rural communities in Mwanza Region, North West Tanzania. The intervention comprised community mobilization, participatory reproductive health education in primary schools, youth-friendly reproductive health services and community-based condom provision for youth. We examine the effect of socioeconomic, cultural and infrastructural factors on intervention content and implementation. This paper demonstrates the means by which such interventions can be feasibly and sustainably implemented to a high standard through existing government health and school structures. However, the use of these structures involves compromise on some key aspects of intervention design and requires the development of complementary strategies to access out-of-school youth and the wider community.

This study is a process evaluation of the school component of the adolescent sexual health programme MEMA kwa Vijana (MkV), which was implemented in 62 primary schools in rural Mwanza, Tanzania from 1999 to 2001. The MkV curriculum was a teacher-led and peer-assisted programme based on the Social Learning Theory. Process evaluation included observation of training sessions, monitoring and supervision, annual surveys of implementers, group discussions and 158 person-weeks of participant observation. Most teachers taught curriculum content well, but sometimes had difficulty adopting new teaching styles. Peer educators performed scripted dramas well, but were limited as informal educators and behavioural models. The intervention appeared successful in addressing some cognitions, e.g. knowledge of risks and benefits of behaviours, but not others, e.g. perceived susceptibility to risk. MkV shared the characteristics of other African school-based programmes found to be successful, and similarly found significant improvements in self-reported behaviour in surveys. However, a substantial proportion of MkV survey self-reports were inconsistent, there was no consistent impact on biological markers and extensive process evaluation found little impact on several key theoretical determinants of behaviour. Improvements in self-reported survey data alone may provide only a very limited-and perhaps invalid-indication of adolescent sexual health programme success.

Objective:We evaluated a demand-creation intervention to increase voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) uptake among men aged 20–34 years in Tanzania, to maximise short-term impact on HIV incidence.Methods:A cluster randomized controlled trial stratified by region was conducted in 20 outreach sites in Njombe and Tabora regions. The sites were randomized 1 : 1 to receive either a demand-creation intervention package in addition to standard VMMC outreach, or standard VMMC outreach alone. The intervention package included enhanced public address messages, peer promotion by recently circumcised men, facility setup to increase privacy, and engagement of female partners in demand creation. The primary outcome was the proportion of VMMC clients aged 20–34 years.Findings:Overall, 6251 and 3968 VMMC clients were enrolled in intervention and control clusters, respectively. The proportion of clients aged 20–34 years was slightly greater in the intervention than control arm [17.7 vs. 13.0%; prevalence ratio = 1.36; 95% confidence intervals (CI):0.9–2.0]. In Njombe region, the proportion of clients aged 20–34 years was similar between arms but a significant two-fold difference was seen in Tabora region (P value for effect modification = 0.006). The mean number of men aged 20–34 years (mean difference per cluster = 97; 95% CI:40–154), and of all ages (mean difference per cluster = 227, 95% CI:33–420) were greater in the intervention than control arm.Conclusion:The intervention was associated with a significant increase in the proportion of clients aged 20–34 years in Tabora but not in Njombe. The intervention may be sensitive to regional factors in VMMC programme scale-up, including saturation.