‘myPaddi'- Digital Health Application to Improve Youth SRH

Only 11% of Nigerian women of reproductive age (15-49 years) use a modern contraceptive method. As a result, Nigeria has an estimated 2.3 million unintended pregnancies yearly. The main cause of these unintended pregnancies and the poor contraceptive use is the lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information available to young people in Nigeria. 30% of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have experienced some form of gender-based violence since age 15. Furthermore, 3.6 million Nigerians are infected with HIV (the second largest HIV epidemic worldwide). The overarching cause of these alarming sexual and reproductive health indices is the lack of accurate sexual &reproductive health information available for young people in Nigeria. There is also the prevailing cultural and religious bias in Nigeria, with even health workers often-times acting as barriers by failing to provide young people with supportive, non-judgmental and youth-appropriate services. myPaddi is targeted at young people in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Just 11 months after its launch, the app already has over 13,000 users. myPaddi (meaning 'My Confidant') has an online community of over 13,000 young people from 16 African countries (80% from Nigeria).