Nurturing the resilience of mobile youth to navigate health and wellbeing crises in southern Africa (Nurture4Youth) study

In Southern Africa, mobile adolescents and young people (mAYP) make up a significant number of the people who migrate. Migration limits mAYP access to health services including access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and quality services, leading to their poor sexual health. Addressing this situation requires an interdisciplinary approach rooted in African-led research, placing mAYP at the centre of defining and solving the problem.

The study, ‘nurturing the resilience of mobile youth to navigate health and wellbeing crises in Southern Africa (Nurture4Youth), aims to develop and extend a strong research partnership to conduct policy-relevant research to enhance mAYP’s resilience to navigate access to SRH services, thereby contributing to their improved health and wellbeing. The study will also strengthen capacities in the collaborating institutions and in the young people to co-develop and lead an ambitious programme of youth-led work using a multi-disciplinary approach of both quantitative and qualitative social science methods. In addition, the study will work with young people to co-develop and test interventions to enhance mAYP resilience, visibility and solidarity, as well as inform policy and practice on building responsive SRH services for mAYP.

Nurture4Youth is a four-year study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The study is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the African Centre for Migration and Society in Johannesburg, the Africa Health Research Institute in KwaZulu-Natal and Zambart in Zambia. The study will be conducted in four settings, namely, KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg in South Africa and Lusaka and Livingstone in Zambia.