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Today, young people not only form the majority of the world’s population, they are leading movements, businesses, and governments. As a result, there is a new urgency for young people to be at the center of decisions that affect their lives: schooling, jobs, their bodies, sense of self, and relationships.
On this International Youth Day, we are celebrating the many successes of young people and highlighting how we are experts of our own lived experiences. We are particularly excited to share with you two timely resources that do just this: advocate for the needs of young people.
The first is Girl Effect and Women Deliver’s new report, which explores how adolescent girls and young women in India, Malawi, and Rwanda utilize the internet to learn more about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). As members of the Women Deliver Young Leader Research Committee, we, along with Girl Effect’s Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors (TEGAs), were consulted and involved in every phase of the research. The intersection of youth-centered health data and the role of the internet is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when credible digital health resources and services are key to sustaining critical SRHR care. The internet can serve as a lifeline for young people, particularly when stigma around SRHR is still prevalent and in-person interactions are not possible. Click here to learn more about the report.
COVID-19 has also altered the environment in which young advocates work, bringing new challenges. In this context, advocates of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) face new barriers to advancing their work. Together with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Women Deliver also published Together on the Path to Change: A Young Advocate’s Guide to Advancing Comprehensive Sexuality Education. This guide is designed to help young advocates to push for increased investments in and favorable policy environments for CSE at the global level while remaining rooted in their local and national movements.
It is important that young people are able to access evidence-based, stigma-free information that enables them to make informed decisions about their health. During this turbulent time, the needs and desires of young people around their own sexual and reproductive health and rights must not be forgotten. We must remain connected to critical information, resources, platforms, and most importantly, each other. Working together makes us more powerful and will help us achieve a more equal, healthy, and prosperous world.
Wishing everyone — young and young at heart — a happy International Youth Day,
Tasneem and Sruthi
Women Deliver Young Leader Alumni
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