Brazil’s decline in fertility has had a significant impact on its rapidly changing population, creating a demographic dividend that lends to the potential for accelerated economic growth. With adolescents comprising 17% of Brazil’s total population, they make up an exceptionally large age group that requires ongoing support to guarantee their positive contributions to society as they age. Observations of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) trends demonstrate areas of progress, as well as improvement. Although adolescents are having sexual intercourse at earlier ages, contraceptive method use, particularly the condom, has increased considerably over a 10-year period from 23.8% in 1996 to 67.4% in 2006. Overall, Brazilians are having fewer children; however, they are also having them earlier. The share of total fertility has increased among adolescents, signaling a pattern of rejuvenation that is cause for concern. In addition, the incidence rate of AIDS cases among young people peaked in 1995 and dramatically declined in 1996, and has since remained stable at 9.5 per 100,000 people. Nevertheless, young adults represent one of the highest prevalence groups of HIV/AIDS, denoting a vulnerability among adolescents aging into this group due to the possibility of undiagnosed disease or a failure to create positive habits of using protection when they begin having sexual intercourse in adolescence. Since the mid-1980’s, the Brazilian government has taken steps to invest in women and adolescents’ SRH through the creation of rights-centric policies, as well as programs to promote access to contraceptive methods and SRH education in the schools. Despite these initiatives, disparities across programs remain. Utilizing Implementation Science as a framework for addressing several programmatic gaps identified, recommendations are made through the application of the Implementation Stages Framework to improve contraceptive supply and the Improvement Cycle Framework to strengthen implementation of the Health and Prevention in the Schools Program.Master of Public Healt
