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Youth Friendly Pharmacies and Partnerships: The CMS-CELSAM Experience

The Commercial Market Strategies project (CMS) developed a network of youth-friendly pharmacies to provide reproductive health information and contraceptives to youth in Guanajuato, Mexico. The network involved the commercial sector in providing reproductive health and family planning services, as well respect youth's privacy and reduce their potential embarrassment when obtaining those services. The project was launched as a pilot in November 2002 in collaboration with the Centro Latinoamericano para Salud y Mujer (CELSAM). Two principal strategies guided the network's design and implementation: training of pharmacy staff and clerks to better serve youths' needs and the launching of a communications campaign to promote the network and provide reproductive health information. This report documents the staged process in which the network was developed, discusses its impact and replication, and highlights lessons learned from the experience. Give us feedback! Is this technical research report useful to you? We'd appreciate feedback, so please share your thoughts with us on our Q&A board.