Applying social franchising techniques to youth reproductive health/HIV services

This paper, produced by Family Health International, examines what role social franchising might have in expanding reproductive health and HIV services for youth. The paper finds that of the six primary franchising techniques most easily adaptable to youth programmes, referral mechanisms, and promotion and marketing are those used most often by the projects visited. Most of the projects promoted youth-friendly services through training and community outreach, but few had formal quality standards established for the franchise.

The author concludes that social franchising techniques may be useful to programmes focusing on reproductive health and HIV prevention for youth, but more research is needed. Social franchising is traditionally designed for clinical services, and adapting these techniques to more community-based approaches to meeting youth needs is challenging. Even so, lessons learned from traditional social franchises may be valuable when looking at how selected franchising techniques are applied to youth services. For example, for a social franchise to be successful and sustainable there has to be sufficient demand for, and use of, the services that are being franchised.