Evidence of the presence or absence of each of the items included in the index.

Data Source(s):

Government documents or other means of verifying the existence of relevant policies, legislation, or regulations; interviews with government officials and key informants

Purpose:

As is the case for family planning programs, a favor­able (or at least not hostile) policy environment is es­sential for the operation and expansion of AYSRH programs. Although few countries have explicitly restrictive policies, because of the so­cial sensitivity surrounding AYSRH issues, many coun­tries lack formal policies regarding the provision of RH information and services to youth. The absence of for­mal policies permits administrators and service provid­ers to impose restrictions based on their personal be­liefs that prohibit youth from gaining access to essen­tial information and services. This indicator measures whether formal policies that enable and support the pro­vision of RH information and services to youth have been enacted.

Issue(s):

Because educators and service delivery staff have personal biases toward and discom­fort in addressing AYSRH issues, the mere existence of policies does not guaran­tee the implementation of those policies. Evaluators may expand the indicator to include scores on the ex­tent to which each policy is actually being implemented. A separate indicator measures the actual availability of and access to relevant information and services by youth.