| De: |
Charlotte Hansen [ Profil ] |
| Sujet: |
Summary of week two
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| Envoyé: |
Oct 4th, 2008 - 16:48:33 |
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Dear Everyone,
Please find here below the summary of the responses to the questions of week two. The summary is also located in the group folder called "Documents".
“We as young persons should be given the opportunity [and] maybe we can bring about the change that has been long anticipated.”
1. Based on your own experience and views on family planning, reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, gender equality and community participation in development, which issues need to be given more attention in your country?
The respondents to this questions had lots of experience and many views on issues which their country needs to give more attention to. The issues include:
Family Planning
- Addressing family planning can help address other issues such as malnutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, maternal health, and high population growth rates
Reproductive health
- Address lack of freedom of choices regarding sexuality and reproductive health matters
- Improving health facilities and accessibility of treatment
Community Participation
- People living with disabilities have often been neglected in development
- Women’s participation in community development must be promoted
- Youth participation must be higher. It is currently weak because many programmes are designed and implemented by adults who do not consider young men and women as partners
- People need to own the process, and by so doing, they get involved. By being involved most people will get informed about certain vital issues, e.g. such as family planning
- Communities should be involved in adopting policies on development
- Promote peer education to facilitate a better dialogue and transmission of information between young people
Gender equality
- If gender is properly mainstream into development it will have positive spill-over effects on other issues
- Gender issues in regard to disability is not often discussed
- Women are being treated as second class citizens
- Violence against women
Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS
- Give equal opportunities to both male and female in education, at the workplace, in reproductive health and family planning and sexually transmitted diseases will decrease
- Sexually transmitted diseases are spreading at a high rate
Sexual education
- Youth need opportunities to learn about family planning and reproductive health
- Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT)
Youth (economic) empowerment
- Youth economic empowerment would be a way of fighting AIDS
- Promote decision making power
Discrimination, stigma and taboo
- Fighting stigma, taboo, and discrimination is need to promote reproductive health, family planning, gender equality and to eliminate sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS
Information
- Lack of access to correct information and services about family planning, abortion, sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases
- Establish multi-purpose youth centers including VCT and dissemination of materials
2. Do you have any suggestions of additional issues relevant to youth which would be important to add to the development (ICPD) agenda?
The respondents had the following suggestions on issues to be added to the ICPD agenda:
- Provide young people with the needed skills and tools to get engaged in community projects
- Youth involvement in health sector reforms
- More focus on youth policies
- Allocation of responsibility to young people
- Stigmatization against young people living with HIV/AIDS
- Access to youth friendly information. Lack of youth-friendly information make young people vulnerable to sometime misleading adulterated information
- Media and development
- Life-skills training on how young people can develop their potential, improve their life and become responsible and careful people
- Make education fun
- Entrepreneurship and leadership skills
- Youth and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
- Youth empowerment
- Plan on how to allocate more funding to already existing programmes
- Peer education
- Harm reduction in regard to young drug users. Drug use increase the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS due to high risk behavior
- More support to youth initiatives
- Empower young people to take up responsibilities (and not only to enjoy privileges)
- Involve young people in decisions and every processes that affects young people
- Resisting fundamentalism and religious extremism
- Promotion of tolerance and non-violence among youth
- Education of future leaders
- Promotion of the usage of capabilities of young people living with disabilities
- Overcoming gaps between policies and reality. E.g. a national health policy states the right of young people to have access to reproductive health services. However, a school policy states that a student is not allowed to bring condoms to school
- Government policies must encourage young people to participate in both planning and execution of policies affecting them
One participant recommended that national youth workshop on ICPD are organized
3. Do you know of development projects addressing issues of poverty reduction, family planning, reproductive health and gender equality (i.e., related to ICPD) which were implemented with a high degree of youth participation and recognition? Were they successful – why or why not?
Most of the respondents have experience with development projects - some related to the issues of ICPD. However, many reported that most projects do not have a direct link to young people.
Some of the experiences include:
- A project building up a health center to help address local issues of poverty, family planning, reproductive health and gender equality
- A project to inquire and inform people of the danger of HIV/AIDS and the need to be tested
- Regional initiatives like Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa (NAYA) and Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER)
- National youth network on AIDS
- Youth magazine in HIV/AIDS
- Governmental development of an Adolescent Reproductive Health and Development Policy and a Sexual Offences Act
- Project on rural youth self-empowerment
- Project on reproductive health education and HIV/AIDS education
- A project for poverty alleviation among young women with disabilities.
- Project on educating young women about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention
- A project on youth friendly reproductive health services partnered between UNFPA, the Ministry of Health, the National Population and Family Planning Commission, and the national Family Planning Association
Some of the successes were based on:
- Youth commitment
- Young people getting the chance to implement projects by themselves and proving that they have the ability to do great things
- Adults accepting and hearing the voices of young people
- Availability of materials to educate people in their own language
Some of the obstacles mentioned include:
- Lack of financial and material support
- No response from public institutions
- Lack of governmental acknowledgement on youth participation
- Challenges in getting donor organizations to accept projects
Many thanks for your great contributions!!
All best,
Charlotte
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