African Youth Alliance

BOTSWANA

GHANA

What is Aya?
Map of Africa

The African Youth Alliance is a collaborative program between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), and Pathfinder International -- three expert development groups which have come together to form a unique and significant alliance to reduce the incidence and spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and improve overall adolescent reproductive health in Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. By partnering with governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community-based and youth-serving groups, AYA aims to make a big difference in young people's lives by providing resources and support to encourage their healthy behavior. The African Youth Alliance is funded through the US Committee for the UN Population Fund.

The African Youth Alliance reaches young people between the ages of 10 and 24, with an emphasis on 10-19-year-olds. Its goal is to help the four program countries:

reduce rates of HIV/AIDS, other STIs, and pregnancy among young people
promote the delay of sexual debut among already sexually active youth, promote the use of condoms and other contraceptives
eliminate harmful traditional practices
eliminate the incidence of forced or coerced sex

Each country has its own local priorities and context, but AYA sets a technical standard using six major strategies for achieving its goals:

Create supportive community and political environments through policy and advocacy efforts at both the national and community levels, and efforts to improve communication between young people and the adults in their lives
Develop and expand behavior change communication through interpersonal communication; folk and mass media, including drama; life planning skills programs for youth; peer education and counseling; and social marketing campaigns
Improve young people's access to -- and the quality of -- reproductive health services by developing, expanding, and institutionalizing youth-friendly services in a variety of settings
Integrate sexual and reproductive health into existing livelihood skills development and training programs for youth
Build the institutional capacity of the country-level partners so they can better plan, implement, manage, and sustain programs and services
Foster coordination and information sharing of program activities, lessons learned, and best practices

When designing and implementing projects and specific interventions, AYA helps adolescents develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that they need to avoid risky behaviors and to practice healthy ones. AYA also addresses various environmental factors that prevent young people from achieving healthy lives, issues of gender and sexuality, promoting of girls' empowerment and improvement of gender equity

The AYA partners recognize that, in order to improve the health and well-being of young people, it is also essential to reach the adults who influence them. These adults include those who come in direct contact with young people, such as health service providers, teachers, organization staff, parents and other adult family members. They also include adults who, through the nature of their work or position in society, influence the nations and communities where young people live, such as government officials, community and religious leaders, and journalists and other members of the media. AYA develops specific activities for these adults to help them ensure that young people live in a supportive environment and receive the programs and services to which they are entitled.

How does AYA work?

First and foremost, AYA believes that the full, active and voluntary participation of young people is key to developing successful and sustainable youth programs. To date, young people have participated in the design of specific AYA projects, and in selected project management meetings and events. AYA is dedicated to continually increasing and improving young people's participation in all aspects of the program, including working with local organizations and institutions to develop sustainable systems for youth participation at regional, national, district, and community levels.

AYA's work is conducted as a collaborative and equal partnership because the group believes that collaboration between sectors and program synergies are the key to achieving great impact and sustainable benefits. The three AYA founding partners -- UNFPA, PATH and Pathfinder -- have well-established track records and complementary technical expertise in adolescent reproductive health programming and work hard together to create lasting and positive change.

Building on local partners' strengths and experiences, AYA expands, improves, and scales up existing projects that constitute best (or promising and innovative ) practices in order to reach large numbers of young people. The AYA partners collaborate with each other and with governments to ensure that necessary "synergies" among program areas are maximized. For example, program behavior change communication strategies and activities are developed in close conjunction with advocacy strategies and service activities, since an individual's behavior is so closely associated with and influenced by their surroundings.

AYA also works to enhance impact and sustainability by building the capacity of its implementing partners. Capacity building efforts focus on an organization's management capacity, such as improving financial and information systems, as well as on technical capacity, such as expanding knowledge and skills in areas and program strategies of adolescent sexual and reproductive health. In all of its work, AYA is steadfastly achieving results and practicing results-oriented management.

AYA's program design is closely related to monitoring and evaluation results. Making decisions based on substantive data, the project is able to make an ambitious impact on young people. By demonstrating and sharing its results-based best practices and lessons learned, AYA contributes to a global understanding of what does and does not work in youth development programming.