Youth advocacy project in Nigeria promotes a shared vision of the future for adolescents.
Foster a shared sense of purpose: That was one of the most important learnings for the team running the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project in Nigeria, a project aimed at pressuring governments to step up their efforts to meet young people’s needs.
Working with networks of young people, policy makers and development organizations, the project’s success hinged on making sure everyone was working toward the same vision. “We have to ensure that the commitment to adolescent well-being is coming not just from one sector but from all,” says Jonathan Abakpa, the Advocacy and Youth Programme Officer who led the project for Plan International in Nigeria.
On this page, you’ll learn about five key actions Plan took to support young people in Nigeria in advocating for their rights and best interests — actions meant to ensure that youth activists like poet and multidisciplinary artist Pelemo Nyajo can achieve their goals. Nyajo joined the campaign to speak up for girls and adolescents living with disabilities, whose voices often go unheard. “I am a part of this demographic, so I felt it was important for me to represent them,” she says.
There aren’t a lot of opportunities for young people to sit down with government officials and discuss the issues they face. Doing this was a very good step forward.” – Pelemo Nyajo, poet and multidisciplinary artist
Being an example for others showed this young poet the power of her voice.
“ There are a lot of young people who don’t have the freedom to ‘be’ in society,” says Pelemo Nyajo, who knows this first-hand. Growing up with fibrous dysplasia, a rare disability that weakens the bones over time, Nyajo spent the better part of her teenage years in Nigeria in what she describes as “lockdown,” kept indoors by her protective mother. To fill the solitary hours, she wrote about the things that troubled her.
When Nyajo ventured out into Abuja at age 18 and began sharing her poetry, she came to understand the power of representation. “When people see you doing things that they have been told they are not capable of doing, it’s inspiring,” she says. This is especially important for girls and adolescents with disabilities, she notes, who are particularly marginalized in Nigeria.
Now 22, Nyajo helps organizations shape their policies and services for youth so that the organizations have better disability inclusion and promote gender equality. But she sometimes wonders if youth voices are really being heard. “Sometimes young people are called to speak, but it doesn’t feel like your input is really needed. It’s more of a tokenistic exercise," Nyajo says, citing a conference she attended where girls were asked to share their experiences of disability.
Young people are taught to say the right thing and not the true thing.” — Pelemo Nyajo
In 2023, Nyajo joined the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project in Nigeria, which aimed to create space for young people to participate in the decision making that affects their well-being. Making sure this participation was truly meaningful was a core consideration for the project, and Nyajo saw this effort play out when the project pressed to include adolescents in high-level policy deliberations around issues like education, health, youth employment and child marriage.
The topics surfaced deep-rooted tensions that youth advocate Jonathan Abakpa, who led the project for Plan International in Nigeria, described as “intergenerational phobia.” The working group holding the discussions had resisted including youth because it felt they would derail the conversation. As one member said, “When we are talking about holistic education review and ending child marriage, young people will be talking about condoms and contraceptives.”
Abakpa, on behalf of the project, encouraged the group to see things differently. He reasoned that contraception and condoms had to be part of the conversation if they were a priority for adolescents. He also asked the group, “How could anyone understand the impact of child marriage better than young people themselves?” This debate resulted in youth being invited to join the working group, including Nyajo.
“I’m glad that we had an enabling environment to engage with government officials,” says Nyajo. She’s careful to note, however, that these discussions won’t have an impact unless youth across Nigeria are supported in demanding accountability. “We can speak from now until tomorrow, but the most important thing is to take the information back to young people and make sure we take action.”
Persuade members of the National Technical Working Group on Adolescent Wellbeing, Health and Development to include youth in their meetings for the first time. This group influences initiatives across the country.
Convene a workshop to review the progress and challenges in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that relate to adolescent well-being. Engage a broad range of stakeholders working with and for adolescents, including youth leaders, ministry representatives, civil society organizations and UN agencies.
Work alongside a coalition of development agencies and youth organizations, including Girls Get Equal Nigeria, to host Democracy Convening 2023 in Abuja, a three-day event to develop a charter of demands for adolescent well-being.
Organize a national event where the Minister of Health announced new investments in adolescent well-being one week before the Global Forum for Adolescents.
Host a four-day Adolescent and Youth Conference to create a comprehensive plan of action that will advance adolescent well-being in 2024.
» Read the full commitment statement
This project was delivered with funding from Fondation Botnar and in partnership with PMNCH.
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