Ticking the box isn’t good enough! Youth call for policies and sexual health programs that will make a real difference.
“ Youth-friendly corners” in health centres in Zambia are supposed to be safe, judgment-free spaces where adolescents can seek counselling and information on important health topics, including sexual and reproductive health. But when the Youth Leadership and Advocacy project in Zambia asked young people, the team learned that while these corners technically “ticked the box” of official requirements for a youth wellness program merely by existing, they didn’t meet youth’s actual needs in practice.
“When you listen to young people speak about their experiences at the corners, you realize [the corners are] not having the full meaningful impact that they are intended to,” says Annely Chibwe, a gender specialist and team lead for the Youth Leadership and Advocacy project.
Chibwe and her team kicked off the project by consulting with 30 young people from youth-led organizations and reviewing the findings from the National Health Indaba, which hosted young people from across the country. The goal was to understand what these services are missing, so they could build clear recommendations for the government on how to better meet adolescents’ needs and promote their overall well-being, including addressing what they need from sexual health programs for youth.
Input from young peer educators who work in the youth-friendly corners was particularly telling. They spoke of not having private spaces where they could counsel youth discreetly or basic supplies, like flip-chart paper, to use when running health-education sessions. Peer educators are also meant to have support and training from the health workers at the centres, but these staff are often unavailable or too busy to provide this guidance, leaving peer educators to field complex questions on their own. “Once we understand what is preventing young people from accessing health information and services, we can begin to respond to their needs,” says Chibwe.
Read on to learn how these discussions are setting the agenda to improve adolescent health and well-being.
Once we understand what is preventing young people from accessing health information and services, we can begin to respond to their needs.” – Annely Chibwe, gender specialist and team lead for the Youth Leadership and Advocacy project.
Young leaders push for government support of health and wellness programs and policies for youth.
“ Every time you elect someone to parliament, it becomes harder to access them,” says Lubumbe Jeremiah Mulanda. The 23-year-old sexual and reproductive health advocate serves as a peer educator with the National AIDS Council of Zambia, which coordinates the country’s AIDS response. He also helps organizations improve how they engage youth. “I work with young people who are leading the charge to ensure that we actually begin to reduce HIV infections,” says Mulanda. “Interventions must come from youth themselves if they are to be effective.”
But without access to their government representatives, it’s hard for youth to make sure their perspective is reflected in large-scale national decisions. The Youth Advocacy and Leadership project helped build a bridge between young people and the members of parliament who have the power to shape legislation, craft policies and influence how budgets get spent.
In Zambia, fewer than one in five adolescents currently access HIV testing or contraceptive services.
Building on our close working relationship with the National Assembly, Plan International organized a meeting in Lusaka between youth activists and members of three parliamentary caucuses: the Caucus on Children, the Youth Parliamentary Caucus and the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights team, which specializes in research.
Among other important items on the table, such as sexuality education in schools and sexual and reproductive health services in rural areas, Mulanda and his peers pressed the members of parliament to find a way to close the gap between what they had promised to spend on health services and what was actually spent. Zambia is a signatory to the Abuja Declaration, which states that countries must allocate at least 15% of their annual government budget to the health sector. But the average spending was only 8.8% between 2015 and 2022, with an increase to 10.4% in 2023.
“The meeting gave us a chance to express our views, have an honest dialogue and troubleshoot issues,” says Mulanda.
For Annely Chibwe, who led the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project for Plan International in Zambia, the meeting was especially meaningful because it brought together political influence and technical expertise with lived experience. “Young people were able to speak to members of a legislative body about the issues that affect them, and the members of parliament were willing to factor those perspectives into their work,” she says.
In response to what they heard, the members of parliament agreed to advocate for the national budget providing adequate health care funding for children and adolescents. They also recognized the need to engage the government’s executive branch in future conversations and committed to making this happen.
“The impact goes beyond just that one meeting,” says Chibwe. In addition to the commitments made so far, the connection between the youth and their government representatives will live on and influence future changes. They’ve stayed in contact via WhatsApp groups and through the organizations the youth are connected to so they can keep the dialogue going.
Convene a series of meetings with young people to review existing policies, identify challenges and draft new commitments for ministry sign-off.
Engage parliamentarians to support the adolescent-well-being agenda. They influence legislation and provide oversight on legal, policy and budget decisions. (Read an example of how this engagement has an impact in the Story of Change above.)
Organize a national campaign event in Lusaka to raise policy makers’ awareness of the demands of the 1.8 Billion Young People for Change campaign.
Thanks to the efforts of every individual involved in this project, the Zambian government has committed to more concrete actions that improve health and protection services for youth, such as:
Read the full commitment statement.
This project was delivered with funding from Fondation Botnar and in partnership with PMNCH.
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