Youth-led activism in Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights – Part 2

CARE Canada’s Youth Champions, Amal, Lauren and Madeline, continue their conversation with Ruth, a youth activist based in Kenya who supports young people to lead advocacy efforts through the SHE SOARS* project. In part 2 of this episode, the group dives deeper into the role of youth activism and unpacks what it means to have youth meaningfully engage in the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) movement. They share experiences of youth-led activism and discuss the role of advocacy to improve young people’s access to SRHR in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Canada. 

*SHE SOARS, funded by Global Affairs Canada, is the Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment Supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills project. Learn more at: https://care.ca/shesoarsproject

Episode transcripts are available in French and English at: care.ca/shesoars.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the SHE SOARS podcast are the speakers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, standards and policies of CARE Canada. The SHE SOARS podcast is a youth-led initiative that provides space for young people to discuss global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with the purpose of raising awareness in Canada. Listeners acknowledge that the material and information presented in the podcast are for informational purposes only and do not constitute advice or services. The podcast is for private, non-commercial use and speakers do not necessarily reflect any organization they work for.

Transcript

Madeline (00:01):

Hello and welcome to SHE SOARS. Her Voice. Her Rights.

Amal (00:05):

We are CARE Canada's Youth Champions, a group of young people across Canada who are passionate advocates for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).

Lauren (00:13):

We're excited to discuss and raise awareness about young women's rights and choices in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

Amal (00:20):

Together, we will explore how these global issues connect to our lives as Canadian youth and discover ways in which we can all take action.

Lauren (00:27):

We will also talk about the SHE SOARS* project, which improves access to health and education, which are areas we want to see change in.

Everyone (00:34):

Join us!

Amal (00:40):

Welcome back everyone to the second part of our conversation today. We are joined again with Ruth, and Ruth is working with the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, where she leads advocacy initiatives and meaningful youth engagement efforts in the Youth Coalition membership and in the SHE SOARS project in Africa. So in our first part of the episode, we talked with Ruth about her experiences with the project and also the challenges that are faced in the partner countries of Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, and what the project is doing to address these gaps.

Lauren (01:15):

So the first thing we were kind of wondering is if you could provide a bit more context about youth advocacy and engagement in the partner countries that we're working in. What is the general attitude towards youth advocacy and engagement in your community? Are youth taken seriously or do you find it difficult to be recognized as a youth advocate? How popular is youth activism amongst different groups? If you could provide a bit of context there, that would be great.

Ruth (01:37):

Thank you so much. Youth advocacy is something that's evolving in my context, if I may say, because as you know, we have power dynamics that have always existed in different projects and in different spaces. So in my own perspective, I'll say deconstructing invisible power, that is deconstructing social norms and attitudes, takes a long time. But then stakeholders in the SRHR field and also in SHE SOARS are taking youth advocacy very seriously. And one thing I must commend the project partner is the substantive participation of young people in the project. And what does this mean? This means that young people, the Youth Advisory Board members who are young people with lived realities in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia and also project participants on the ground are engaged in consultation and there is sharing power with adults stakeholders. And this shows that youth advocacy and youth leadership is being valued in the project. So as a project, we do not believe in tokenism where young people are only engaged because it is the correct thing to do, quote unquote. But then we believe in sharing power with young people and recognizing them as equal partners in programming. So it's still something that is evolving in my context and it's something that project partners and the leadership of SHE SOARS have taken very seriously even as we continue with the project implementation in the three countries.

Lauren (03:26):

Thanks so much for that answer. I think I can agree with some of those points as well. I've been involved in some projects with youth activism that have felt a bit more like youth tokenism. But I've found with this project and a few ones that I've been involved in, maybe more recently, they've been a bit more actively involved and really seeking our input rather than just saying like, ‘yep, we have three youth involved in this project.’ So I've noticed that kind of shift in the Canadian context as well.

Ruth (03:53):

Amazing.

Madeline (03:54):

Yeah, I mean I think there's a big difference between like you were saying tokenism and having youth involved in your advocacy versus having actual youth-led advocacy. And that's something that I've really appreciated from my experiences with the SHE SOARS project as well; there does seem to be a lot of investment in having meaningful youth engagement and really youth-led advocacy at different levels of the project, both on the public engagement side with us and the Youth Champions as well as on the actual project activities side in the project countries, like with the Youth Advisory Board and all the other different partner organizations.

Ruth (04:32):

Yeah. And just to add, so Youth Coalition conducted an intergenerational dialogue session with project partners just to ensure that we are on the same page in terms of meaningful youth engagement and to build capacity of partners so that they understand how they can support young people and meaningfully engage them. And it was so enlightening and partners were so amazed by their training and what we are doing. So Youth Coalition is now consolidating all the discussions that came up from the intergenerational dialogue and we are developing a strategy, sort of a guide on meaningful youth engagement. So this guide will be a flexible document that can be adjusted as time goes by but then it will be a reference point on all matters meaningful youth engagement in the SHE SOARS project. So it's a very good thing and it's something that I've not seen in other projects that I have been part of.

Madeline (05:36):

Yeah, I was lucky enough to be at some of the intergenerational dialogues as well and I, like you said, I found it really enlightening and it was really inspiring almost to see that all the different partner organizations were really invested in learning how they can engage with youth more meaningfully. So I'm excited to see the guide that's going to come out of that that

Ruth (05:57):

Amazing.

Madeline (05:59):

Let’s move on, switch gears a little bit. Maybe Ruth, if you wouldn't mind, could you walk us through a little bit what your specific role is in the SHE SOARS project or what it has been so far? And talk a little bit about some of the ways you and other youth from Kenya, Zambia and Uganda have been engaging with the project.

Ruth (06:23):

So I've been leading advocacy efforts at Youth Coalition and ensuring that I work with the Youth-Led Organizations (YLOs) from Kenya, Uganda and Zambia that we are sub-granting, considering them as the experts of their own realities because they know and they understand the lived realities and the needs of adolescents on the ground. So my role has been supporting them, capacity-building them on policy mapping processes and understanding the regional context and how they can engage with the different accountability bodies that are in place so that they can hold the governments accountable. Currently I'm working as the Program Manager so my role changed last month. I'm working as the Program Manager and I'm supporting the day-to-day implementation of the advocacy pillar and the project work at Youth Coalition, holding regular check-ins with Rebecca who is the Chief of Party, so that we ensure that the YLOs understand the project and they are able to implement the project in the agreed timeframe, and also ensuring that the project’s target and indicators are met, and the timelines. So that has been my role and I've been quite involved with the Youth Advisory Board in their day-to-day work through supporting them, attending some of the high-level advocacy events that they have to attend in the region just to ensure there is meaningful youth engagement and the work of SHE SOARS is being felt in the region. So that's how I've been supporting the project since last year when I joined until now and it has been a good experience so far. So good.

Madeline (08:14):

That's really good to hear.

Amal (08:15):

Yeah. Thank you for sharing about your role in the project. It's very interesting to hear about. So we were also wondering like outside of the SHE SOARS project, are there much youth-led movements to increase SRHR in the project countries?

Ruth (08:31):

Yes, Amal, we have coalitions and the movements of young people in the three countries. We have a coalition that’s in the different countries, it's called the SRHR Alliance. What they do is they ensure that Youth-Led Organizations and youth activists and intersectional youth groups in the region are able to understand the policy context, the high-level advocacy events that they can influence change in. And what we are doing as Youth Coalition, as part of providing technical support and accompaniment to the grassroots Youth-Led Organizations that we are sub-granting, is connecting them with those movements, with those youth-led movements on the ground and those who sit in different technical working groups in the relevant Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education so that we ensure that we are supporting the work that is also being done on the ground in terms of SRHR advocacy. And we do not work in silos because all of us, our overall goal is to increase enjoyment of adolescents in the region. One of our key targets that we have is to ensure that the YLOs now are able to form sort of a community of practice with these youth-led movements and these youth-led networks that provide a community of practice that can be there as a reference point and that can be used to hold duty bearers accountable and to support our grassroot SRHR advocacy in the three countries.

Amal (10:11):

Thank you. Yeah, it's great to hear about the youth-led movements in the partner countries. I know like in Canada we have a few organizations that do work for SRHR and advocating for those rights. Just thinking back to I think last year there was one youth organization that was advocating for free menstrual products in schools. So that was one of the key things that they were able to pass like at the policy level. So just hearing about the context in the partner countries and then reflecting back on my experiences, it’s pretty interesting to hear the differences.

Lauren (10:46):

Yeah. So this is a question for the group. Why do you think youth activism is so important in the SHE SOARS project and the global SRHR movement more broadly?

Ruth (10:57):

What I can say is the youth are a movement and we are a force to reckon globally and also in the region. But then, the youth in the region in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia and also I believe globally, we have faced so many challenges. For example, the lack of financial support to even attend these high-level advocacy spaces. For example, right now, next week we have the CSW (Commission on the Status of Women), but then you find there's a youth who would like to go, but then because of one reason or another they're not able to go. So for me, I think youth activism in the region and also globally is something that stakeholders should tap in to because as young activists we know and we understand our needs better than anyone else does. And globally, linking it to innovation and the digital divide, globally half – more than three quarters, not even half – of internet users are young people.

Ruth (12:00):

And young people have innovative solutions in terms of SRHR in terms of advocacy. But the problem is with the support and the capacity strengthening. So for me, I believe that youth activism is something that stakeholders should invest in. And also tapping solidarity between youth leaders and adult stakeholders because without the support of adult stakeholders, youth activism cannot be there. So adult stakeholders providing capacity strengthening to young advocates so that they can lead on SRHR advocacy at the global and at the regional level as experts of our own realities. So I believe in youth activism and I believe that the SHE SOARS project, through what we are doing, empowering young activists to rise up through the different pillars is quite a big step towards youth activism. And I know by the end of the project we will have raised a group of young people that are able to advocate for their right at high-level advocacy spaces and the international spaces for the wellbeing of other adolescents in their community.

Lauren (13:18):

Yeah, that's a great answer. Thank you. I would echo everything you just said about why I think it's important and I think, like you said, youth often come in with a fresh perspective and their own perspective about what youth services they would actually need with their lived experiences. So I think centering youth-led activism is just so important. And especially being able to break stigma and intergenerational stigma, kind of starting that with the youth I think is a great route to be able to do that.

Ruth (13:44):

Yeah, something just crossed my mind when Lauren was speaking. I think breaking the interconnected systems of oppression such as ageism, classism, patriarchy and so on. Once we are able to break them, then I believe stakeholders will now believe in youth activism because it's something that is rising up and the youth just need support. When youth are supported, then we can do incredible things.

Madeline (14:15):

Yeah, I totally agree. And honestly it was very well said, Ruth. It's difficult to find anything to add, but I also just think on a global scale SRHR generally is already a very politicized issue, but when it comes to SRHR for youth, I think it's often even more so because there's a lot of stigma around even just talking about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with young people. There's this idea that it’s not age appropriate or any of these things, but the fact is that these issues do really still affect young people. And so it's important to get young people involved. And I think that's also a big part of the role that youth-led activism has to play is like you were saying, young people are experts in our own experiences, and we are the ones who are really able to understand what it's like to deal with those issues and so are sort of uniquely placed to lead those advocacy efforts.

Amal (15:17):

Yeah, I totally agree. Well, I mean all of you three have mentioned every single point that I would've thought of about why youth-led activism is really important because youth have a powerful voice when we're all collective.

Madeline (15:32):

Okay, well I just want to say thank you again so much, Ruth, for this conversation. It was super interesting, super illuminating, really interesting to hear about all the work you've been doing and all of your experiences. And thank you very much also to everyone who was listening to both parts of our conversation and we will see you next time in about two weeks. Bye.

Amal (15:55):

Bye everyone. Thanks Ruth.

Ruth (15:57):

Thank you for having me.

Madeline (16:00):

Thank you.

Amal (16:03):

Thanks for listening to SHE SOARS. If you liked this episode, please share it on social media, connect with us in the comments or give us a like.

Lauren (16:10):

Make sure to catch our next episode by subscribing to our channel and following us wherever you get your podcasts.

Madeline (16:16):

Follow @carecanada on Instagram for updates on our show and the project.

Lauren (16:22):

SHE SOARS stands for Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls' Rights and Skills in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

Madeline 16:31):

The project is funded by Global Affairs Canada. Check out our global partner organizations:

Amal (16:38):

Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Restless Development for even more project updates.

Lauren (16:46):

Thanks again for listening. Until next time!