Young People Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health: Toward a New Normal

"Youth need information about their bodies and rights, as well as tools and support to make the decisions best for themselves and their circumstances."

This Youth Investment, Engagement, and Leadership Development (YIELD) Project report describes the need for "young people's participation and leadership at every level in youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) initiatives - from ideation to implementation." The report synthesises stakeholder-led identification of promising practices, a description of multi-level impacts, and recommendations for the future. It is accompanied by online resources that are designed to support continued learning and discussion on the topics raised through YIELD.

Inputs for the report included steering committee consultations, a global literature review and a programme scan to identify relevant programmes and key informants to engage through in-depth interviews and discussion groups. The project relied on an advisory group made up of current and former adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (AYSRHR) youth leaders. Primary data were coded and analysed using Dedoose.

Promising practices identified in the research include the following:

• "Engaging a diverse cross-section of young people as participants and leaders in AYSRHR requires intention-al recruitment across the diversity of youth identity groups and sociocultural contexts.
• Unlocking young people’s potential as AYSRHR contributors necessitates actively building their capabilities and assets using appropriate methodologies and approaches.
• Creating supportive and equitable environments to ensure that young people’s contributions are included and acted upon.
• Fostering connections  among  youth participants and adult decision makers as fundamental drivers of change.
• Effectively documenting impact through the availability of necessary resources, stronger cross-stakeholder partnerships, and use of emerging research tools."

Evidence of impact shows:

• "Youth participation and leadership in AYSRHR efforts builds youth capabilities and promotes their personal and professional development.
• Youth participation contributes to stronger organizations and more responsive policies, programs, and services.
• Youth participation builds civil society and contributes to the power and impact of social and political movements.
• Youth participation appears to be correlated with improvements in health outcomes, including reductions in unwanted adolescent pregnancy."

The YIELD report concludes with a call to funders to:

• "Support a systems-based approach to mainstreaming youth participation across the AYSRHR ecosystem;
• Coordinate stakeholders to facilitate agenda-setting, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration; and
• Act as catalysts for expanding and supporting youth-led and youth-driven initiatives in ways that allow them to have sustainable, multi-level impact. "

The executive summary (also available in French and Spanish) extends a call to all stakeholders to:

1. "Work with youth as partners. Leverage their ideas and experiences, and work alongside them to achieve their goals for SRHR and beyond.
2. Collaborate with others advancing youth participation and leadership in SRHR. Coordinate to reduce field-wide fragmentation and to share learnings. 
3. Establish a shared vision. Work with young people to create a shared agenda for the field. Build in measurable milestones and accountability mechanisms, and fully resource implementation."

YIELD also invites readers to "have 1 conversation at your organization within 30 days about how you can take youth participation and leadership to the next level - discussion guide below. Take the pledge by joining the YIELD Project Youth SRHR Learning Exchange Facebook group, a cross-stakeholder community of practice to share learnings."

YIELD offers these related resources:

• YIELD findings PowerPoint presentation
• Learning and recommendations summary [PDF, 16 pages]
• Discussion guide [PDF, 2 pages] - designed to kick-start conversations around good practice themes that emerged in YIELD research
• Issue paper on gender [PDF, 18 pages] - offers a snapshot of current gender dynamics through 8 additional key-informant interviews, 6 of which were with female youth leaders currently working in the field
• Social media toolkit
• Overview webinar recording
• Storytelling dice game for young people [PDF, 4 pages] - creates a dynamic way for young people to interact with YIELD findings and connect with others to share lived experiences as participants and leaders in SRHR efforts.