YouAct, represented by Ana Rizescu, along with other youth networks representatives has participated in a meeting hosted by UNFPA and co-convened by UNFPA and the UNAIDS Secretariat as the adolescent work stream of the SG’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health “Every Woman Every Child”.

Mobilizing support

I joined the meeting of civil society, youth organizations and UN agencies, to discuss and explore the priorities moving forward and to strategize on mobilizing commitments in support of the SG’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health. During the meeting, several presentations laid the ground for understanding the key programmatic principles, sharing examples and brainstorming for the mobilization, participation and commitments of adolescents and youth.

I was one of the speakers on a panel discussion about young people mobilizing, advocating and holding governments accountable for adolescent health. I have presented some examples and reflected on the challenges and achievements that could be used as lessons learned for future initiatives.

The first case study was the European Dialogue for Youth Rights project of YouAct, Choice, Restless Development and Hope XXL, in particular the Hearing at the European Parliament and the Advocacy Handbook developed by YouAct. More details can be found at http://youact.org/news-article.php?show=m&id=64.

I have also presented the Eastern Europe and Central Asia “Youth Voice” campaign that mobilizes and links global/regional to country realities and advocacy with national decision makers. The campaign provides a platform for youth voices to be heard and supports them to reach out to the decision makers in their country, to advocate for their priorities and to contribute to the debates that will shape the countries position vis-a-vis the youth components of the post-2015 development agenda. The online platform http://eecayouthvoice.org/ provides insight in the campaign activities and its engagement and coordination mechanisms.

The SG’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health has been launched in September and more information as well as the commitments can be found at http://www.everywomaneverychild.org/

Link: More details can be found here |