POLICY & ADVOCACY
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| Youth
participate in a rally to increase advocacy for policies
that support adolescent sexual and reproductive health. |
Rationale
The African Youth Alliance's focus countries — Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania
and Uganda — are among a growing number of developing countries that have,
in recent years, adopted adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) policies
aimed at creating an environment that supports not only the provision and use
of reproductive health care for youth, but also social norms and cultural practices
that promote positive reproductive health behavior However, while officially
these policies have been adopted, few, if any, countries have successfully implemented
them. Several factors can be identified as contributing to this dichotomy, including
weak political will and the persistence of adverse social norms and cultural
practices.
Definition
UNFPA's efforts in policy and advocacy, which support AYA's major program
interventions, behavior chance communication and youth-friendly services, seek
to improve the legal and policy environment and thereby assure successful implementation
of supportive ASRH laws and policies through the removal and/or amendment of
unsupportive laws and, where they do not exist, through the promotion and adoption
of new supportive laws, social norms and cultural practices.
Key Program Elements
Expected results include —
- an
improved legal and policy environment for ASRH policies
and programs in general and for AYA in particular;
strengthened capacities for policy formulation, analysis
and implementation, and enforcement of ASRH laws and
policies strengthened
capacity of AYA implements for ASRH advocacy at all
levels enhanced
multi-sectoral approach to ASRH programs in AYA countries
- strengthened
capacity for resource mobilization to sustain ASRH
programs
Strategic
Approaches
Approaches adopted to achieve these results build on the experiences and lessons
learned in ASRH policy and advocacy implementation over the past decade. Under
the Policy sub-component, improvement in the legal and policy environment will
be achieved by pursuing the following strategies —
- Reviewing
and synthesizing, as appropriate, evaluations
and/or research findings in the four AYA countries
and elsewhereAnalyzing
policy at the national, sub-national and/or sectoral
levels in order to identify gaps and inconsistencies
in existing laws and policies. Special attention
will be paid to determining whether or not specific
legal issues, such as early marriage, prohibitions
against pregnant girls and young mothers enrolling
in school, laws permitting prosecution of women
who have undergone abortion procedures, and the
needs and rights of various youth segments, including
out-of-school youth, married adolescents, and
adolescent single mothers, have been addressUndertaking
policy dialogue and advocacy with policy makers
at the national, district and community levels
in collaboration with PATH Establishing
and/or strengthening national and local multi-sectoral
groups to coordinate policies and programmatic
initiatives directed at improving young people's
reproductive health Building
national capacity for policy formulation, review
and implementation, including issues such as reducing
HIV/AIDS prevalence, reducing adolescent pregnancy,
promoting condom use and delaying onset of sexual
activities Mobilizing
political support from established political,
government and community organizations ,particularly
youth advocates, for policy formulation, review
and implementation. This may include identifying
necessary policy and/or legal reforms, guidelines,
and protocols that will be required for policy
implementation (eg, removal of legal barriers
or promotion of key reforms and early/forced marriage)
- Involving
youth in planning and carrying out policies and
training and equipping them with tools to adequately
participate in planning and delivery service
UNFPA's
approach to advocacy is closely linked to the strategies
outlined above, but also addresses the promotion
and adoption of social norms and cultural practices
that support young people's reproductive health.
At the national level, advocacy strategies involve —
- Developing
information and briefing on key AYA outcomes,
specifically targeting high-level policy makers,
political, government and religious organizations,
traditional leaders, civil society, academic
institutions and influential individualsDirectly
involving youth in AYA's advocacy efforts as
young people are known to be among the most effective
advocates for change. Their energy and enthusiasm
have been used in several programs to help modify
social norms and lower barriers to youth programmingSeeking
the support of influential leaders to champion
AYA causes. This approach has proved very successful
in persuading high-level decision makers to make
a commitment to ASRH policy and programsBuilding
youth-focused advocacy networks and coalitions
at the national and local levels. Such networks,
involving all sectors of society including nongovernmental
organizations, have proven critical to helping
create and support positive policies, as well
as to carrying out and scaling-up programsBuilding
the capacity of national institutions for community
organizations to advocate for ASRH in general,
and for AYA in particular. This involves training
coalition partners on advocacy skills and ASRH
issues, conducting workshops to empower youth
and youth advocates on reproductive health rights,
facilitating effective participatory and leadership
skills, conducting workshops to train media personnel
of ASRH issues and the AYA program, conducting
community mobilization and soliciting community
leaders' support
- At
the global level, advocacy activities will target
executive bodies including the ambassadors of
participating countries and donor countries to
the United Nations, relevant media institutions,
partner UN agencies active in the field of adolescent
sexual and reproductive health, and relevant
international NGOs.
Scaling Up
The mobilization of national capacity and the involvement of the society,
community-based organizations, youth organizations and beneficiaries are not
only important for ownership and sustainability, but also for accountability.
Scaling-up of policy and advocacy activities will be achieved by successfully
revising laws and policies at the national level and also by transferring the
capacity to formulate policy and monitor implementation in order to pressure
influential community-based organizations.
Linking to Other Program Areas
Policy dialogue with national policy makers and advocacy to improve the legal
and policy environment are directly linked to activities in other AYA program
areas, specifically behavior change communication and youth-friendly services.
Successful policy and advocacy efforts will facilitate the achievement of AYA
outcomes as they relate to behavior change, the reduction of HIV/AIDS prevalence,
the reduction of pregnancy rates and the promotion of condom use.
A review by Pathfinder of studies on the current state of young adult reproductive
health policy and advocacy initiatives suggests that even where such policies
exist, a lack of political will continues to hamper efforts to implement these
policies. Indeed, many country-level decision makers still need to be convinced
about the national benefits of investing in adolescent reproductive health.
Moreover, some decision makers are unaware of these benefits and others are
personally uncomfortable with issues of adolescent behavior and sexuality. Improving
this environment is a challenge that AYA must overcome, using some of the strategies
that have proved most effective.
Evaluation Methods for Assessing Program Interventions
A variety of monitoring and evaluation methods will be used to assess the
policy and advocacy outcomes. These will include conducting and updating situation
and stakeholder analyses to provide baseline data; and conducting policy reviews
and periodic rapid assessment and pre- and post-intervention surveys to assess
the nature and level of change among opinion leaders within the community and
in social norms and cultural practices. For the assessment of community norms,
some form of operations research, coupled with in-depth socio-cultural studies
may be undertaken. With regard to the involvement of media institutions, media
content analysis and audience survey will be conducted while budget analysis
may be targeted to assess political support for ASRH.
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