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The MenEngage Africa Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Learning and Exchange symposium in Nairobi, Kenya proved to be a transformative experience for all who participated. Over the course of three days, attendees had an opportunity to engage with a diverse range of perspectives and experiences on SRHR. The symposium served as an important platform to bring together diverse practitioners, policy makers, community gatekeepers and young people in all their diversities to unpack youth involvement and participation in knowledge sharing and development of SRHR priorities in Africa.
The day began with a panel of youth voices on SRHR Policy in Africa. Diverse youth advocates including young women, young people living with HIV and young queer people shared their experiences with SRHR in their communities. The panellists noted that the lack of access to accurate information when they were children impacted their ability to fully access critical health services in adulthood like contraception and family planning. It also impacted their ability to address the violations they’ve faced in childhood. They highlighted the need to have young people in policy spaces and specifically called for other youth advocates to ensure that they create structured feedback mechanisms to co-create solutions with their communities in all their diversity.
This was followed by an abstract presentation session where the presenters highlighted research on the challenges that young people face in accessing SRHR and potential evidence-backed solutions. Presenters noted critical drivers of vulnerability to SRHR violations and HIV transmission, including family structure instability, restrictive policies, humanitarian and emergency settings, including conflict and climate change, and the social stigma of marginalised youth populations, such as LBQTGNC persons. Key solutions highlighted included conducting advocacy forums with key stakeholders, such as health workers and religious leaders, and innovative ways to share information with young people, like hotlines.
Participants then proceeded into breakout sessions that covered a range of strategy-building and experience-sharing sessions. In a discussion on Dealing with the Opposition: Implementing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the face of the Anti-Rights Movement, participants shared their experiences with the growing influence of resourced anti-rights, anti-gender actors within the continent and emphasised the need to build public support for SRHR, reframe narratives and leverage youth engagement. Participants also shared their experiences with the MenCare programme in a session on Sharing and Learning from Experiences within the Region.
The discussion on funding for youth continued into the afternoon during a Donor Forum at the main plenary. Representatives from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi and the Embassy of Ireland in Kenya shared insights into their funding priorities for SRHR and how youth organisations can access such funding. An interactive session READY for the Summit of the Future highlighted youth priorities for the Pact for the Future, emphasising the need for increased youth-led political participation, democracy, and governance. Youth advocates were urged to work strategically to ensure health-related advocacy agendas feature more prominently in influential platforms.
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