FHI 360’s “R&E Search for Evidence”: Why understanding adolescents’ perceptions of gender inequitable norms is important for development programming

Judith Nalukwago, a monitoring and evaluation manager for FHI 360’s Communication for Healthy Communities program in Uganda, discusses a paper she and her colleagues published on “gender norms associated with adolescent sexual behaviors.” Nalukwago writes, “In our paper, we report that a majority of both girls and boys support gender inequitable norms. With such findings, it is evident that development practitioners need to understand the perspective and perceptions adolescents have of complex gender norms in order to design targeted gender-responsive sexual and reproductive health programs…” (9/9).