How can civil society organizations contribute to the scale-up of comprehensive sexuality education? Presentation of a scaling framework illustrated with examples from Indonesia.

ABSTRACT

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can substantially contribute to the health and well-being of young people. Yet, most CSE interventions remain limited to the small piloting or research phase and scale-up is often an afterthought at the end of a project. Because of the specificities of CSE, including it being a controversial topic in many contexts and a topic on the fringe between health, education and youth, a specific scaling approach to CSE is needed. The commentary presents a practical framework to support civil society organisations (CSOs), to address barriers to scaling up CSE in their contexts. The utilization and relevance of the framework is demonstrated in this article, by featuring examples from the scale up process of CSE in Indonesia. The framework identifies key principles for scaling up, including taking a scaling mindset from the start, government ownership and political commitment for scale-up, and identifying the added value of CSOs. The framework starts with a self-assessment by the CSO and then follows four phases making the case, engaging in dialogue, establishing building blocks and implementation and scale-up. Each of these phases are illustrated with examples from Indonesia.This framework is a call to action with practical guidelines to support CSOs to take on this role, because with the right scaling strategies, the largest generation of young people ever alive can become healthy, empowered and productive adults.