Sexual and Reproductive Health
5. Allocating Urban Youth Funds (UN-HABITAT)
Donor agencies can play a lead role in demonstrating young people’s capabilities in allocating resources, enhancing the capacity and interest of local and national governments to address youth issues.
Young people and adults share joint responsibility on the advisory board to The UN-HABITAT Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-led Development. Established in 2009, the fund will award between USD $5,000 and $25,000 to organisations led by young people, aged 15 to 32 years, over two years (from the end of 2009), targeting youth-led initiatives in slums and squatter settlements that are in urgent need of financial support. The initial funding has been provided by the Norwegian Government.
Themes: Governance, Voice and Accountability, Post-Conflict Transition and Livelihoods, Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Organisational Development
6. Bahrain’s National Youth Policy (UNDP)
To involve youth in policy formulation increases the chances of its success and uptake. Cross-sectoral youth policies are more effective: engaging different ministries in the process, such as education and health, enables the youth ministry to be mainstreamed. The consultative process develops young people’s skills so they are able to contribute more effectively to future policy initiatives.
The Government Department of Youth and Sport (GOYS) in Bahrain, supported and funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) undertook a comprehensive 18-month nationwide process to assess the situation, needs and aspirations of Bahraini youth in order to inform the country’s first National Youth Policy (created in 2004).
Youth Engagement Lens: Beneficiaries, Partners
Operational Area: Policy and Planning
9. Uganda's National Development Plan (DFID)
“By involving a large number of national youth in NDP processes, we are creating a large base of the public that will be able to support, engage with and promote national development.” SPW
The social development advisor at DFID Uganda was acutely aware of the growing youth bulge in the country, and the need to engage more actively with young people in order to minimise the risk of youth apathy or violence. DFID Uganda commissioned a civil society organisation, SPW, to lead and organise a two-day national youth consultation at the request of the National Planning Authority in June 2009. Young people’s recommendations were listened to and clearly documented as part of the formulation of the National Development Plan (NDP).
Youth Engagement Lens: Partners
Themes: Governance, Voice and Accountability, Post-Conflict Transition and Livelihoods, Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Policy and Planning
10. SRHR Needs Assessment,(UNICEF, Sierra Leone)
UNICEF Sierra Leone commissioned a partner civil society organisation (SPW Sierra Leone) to undertake a needs assessment with young researchers. The assessment focused on out-of-school children, i.e., those who have dropped out of school, those who never attended school, or those who have participated in non-formal school programmes. The information collected was used to produce a set of guidelines for life skills programmes delivering non-formal HIV education.
Operational Area: Policy and Planning
13. Mainstreaming SRHR in Education (USAID, Senegal)
“HIV and AIDS mainstreaming should result in the epidemic becoming part and parcel of the routine functions and functioning of a sector ...as an integral part of the planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring activities”. UNAIDS 2008
Multi-sectoral approaches that engage government agencies, communities, and youth are vital for sustainable change. The Population Council and Frontiers together have worked across different policy areas, utilising a strong research base and government partnerships to catalyse change in adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policy and practice. Regional research pilots informed the creation of a nationwide programme between 1999 and 2007. The majority of funding was provided by USAID.
Youth Engagement Lens: Beneficiaries, Partners
Themes: Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Implementation
14. SRHR Peer Education (NAC, Uganda)
In order to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, young people need confidence, awareness of gender issues and access to services and motivation, not just the raw facts.
Young Empowered and Healthy (YEAH) is a nationally recognised sexual health campaign for and by young people in Uganda, launched in 2004 under the auspices of the Uganda AIDS Commission. YEAH uses radio and other media to reach youth and produces an award winning national weekly serial drama, ‘Rock Point 256.’ YEAH is implemented by Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU) with technical assistance from Health Communication Partnership (HCP). Funding and support for YEAH has been drawn from USAID, PEPFAR (a special US presidential fund for SRH intervention measures), through John Hopkins Bloomberg University. Other funding is from Save the Children Uganda, UNICEF and the Uganda National AIDS Commission.
Youth Engagement Lens: Beneficiaries, Partners
Themes: Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Implementation
17. Launching a Youth-Led Partner (USAID, Jamaica)
Youth-led organisations are in a unique position to develop and implement initiatives that address issues from a youth perspective and offer solutions that respond to the diverse realities of young people. USAID funded a programme through Jamaican partners to promote healthy lifestyles amongst Jamaican youth, addressing sexual health and violence prevention through youth-led peer education and outreach.
Founded as part of the USAID-funded JASTYLE Project, the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN) has grown into an independent NGO working closely with the national government, civil society, national and international NGOs and the school system to address issues of democracy and youth participation. It focuses on: adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, violence prevention and arts and culture in Jamaica. Working from the local level up, JYAN has developed links to key decision-makers in national and multilateral policy and funding bodies.
Operational Area: Implementation
18. Country Level Indicators (Commonwealth/UN)
Lack of age-aggregated data and specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound objectives is a global problem affecting the vast majority of youth plans and programmes.
The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015 (PAYE) and the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) are framework documents that provide ways forward. The PAYE underpins the work of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), and is offered as a model strategic plan for ministries of youth, but also calls for mainstreaming across departments. CYP and a number of UN system agencies are collaborating on next steps.
Youth Engagement Lens: Beneficiaries
Themes: Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Monitoring and Evaluation
19. Youth Empowerment Programme (NAC, Uganda)
Youth-led monitoring and evaluation (M&E) facilitates the design of realistic and practical tools, as well as building transferable skills and ensuring that young people’s input to decision-making is informed and consistent.
The Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP)60 has young people leading field- based M&E as part of their activities on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), livelihoods and conflict resolution with their peers in schools and communities. Their experiences were discussed and recorded during a youth guidance project workshop in Uganda.
- 60. 2010-2012 funding from DFID-CSCF
Youth Engagement Lens: Beneficiaries, Partners
Themes: Governance, Voice and Accountability, Post-Conflict Transition and Livelihoods, Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Monitoring and Evaluation
20. Measuring Adolescent Empowerment (UNESCO, Nepal)
In accordance with UNESCO’s strategy of action with and for youth, which strives to involve young people as equal partners in all aspects of project planning, implementation and evaluation, the Section for Youth collaborated with Youth Initiative to monitor and evaluate a pilot on ‘Breaking the poverty cycle of women’ in two districts of Nepal. Peer-group monitoring and evaluation was expected to generate a better reflective mechanism to evaluate progress from the recipients’ viewpoint and to contribute to the capacity-building of youth organisations active in social development. Youth Initiative was responsible for carrying out the M&E which was simultaneously conducted in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
Themes: Sexual and Reproductive Health
Operational Area: Monitoring and Evaluation
