Global Partners in Action – Championing Meaningful Youth Participation

By Katie Chau, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights Member (UK/Canada)

Youth Coalition (YC) (http://www.youthcoalition.org) is a long standing partner of Population Action International. Previously a recipient of PAI’s small grants program, Youth Coalition is an international advocacy organization comprised entirely of young people who are committed to promoting adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive rights at the national, regional and international levels.

Katie Chau, a Youth Coalition member, joined PAI on the steering committee for the Global Partners in Action: NGO Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development in September. Katie’s perspective from the conference follows.

Fifteen years ago, 179 countries signed the ICPD Programme of Action – a ground-breaking document that recognized for the first time young people’s rights to sexual and reproductive health. One of the most important objectives of the Programme of Action was to increase youth participation in the planning, implementation and evaluation of development programmes and policies that directly affect young people’s lives.

Today, fifteen years after the signing of the Programme of Action, over 400 people representing a multitude of NGOs from around the world have gathered in Berlin for the Global Partners in Action NGO forum. Over the coming days, we will take stock of what has been accomplished since 1994 and will strategize for the five remaining years of the ICPD Programme of Action.

While I have high hopes for outcomes of this Forum, for me, the Global Partners in Action NGO Forum is already a success in terms of youth participation. Youth participation and youth perspectives were made a top priority from the planning of the Forum. One of the first objectives of the steering committee was to have at least 25% of all participants be under the age of 30 years old. We have surpassed this goal!

Recognizing the importance for youth participants to collaborate and strategize, the Forum supported a Youth Sexual and Reproductive Rights Symposium, which took place one day before the official start of the Forum. This symposium was instrumental for youth participants to develop the key messages they will promote throughout the Forum.

The steering committee also committed to including at least one young person in all plenary panels as an active presenter or moderator. This is a significant improvement from previous international conferences, where young people were merely invited to stand on stage without being able to participate meaningfully in discussions. The conference n programme also includes several breakout sessions that focus on young people’s issues and takes even further steps towards meaningful youth participation by including young speakers in a variety of panels to integrate youth perspectives into broader discussions of sexual and reproductive health and rights and development issues.

As one of the youth representatives on the steering committee, I was not only fully involved in discussions and decision-making, but was also invited to be one of the group’s co-chairs. The other members of the steering committee made special efforts to adapt to some of my specific needs as a young person, like respecting my study commitments and providing me with background information on issues that were new to me. From day one, I felt fully supported and was impressed by the level of trust and confidence that the steering committee had in my work and the work of my fellow youth member, Vincent Abrigo.

The Global Partners in Action NGO Forum is a strong example of effective and meaningful youth participation. I hope it will set a standard for future international conferences and that its commitment to meaningful youth participation will resonate through 2015 and beyond.