The Nigerian Association for the Promotion of Adolescent Health & Development (NAPAHD)

The problems were identified as teen pregnancy, abortion, STDS, unemployment, drug abuse etc. The conference also recognized the insensitivity of African governments to the plight of young people while it noted the uncoordinated responses from the donor community. The regional body was formed to serve as the African apex organization on adolescent issues.

Also at the conference, mandate was given for the formation of country chapters. This immediately led to the formation of Kenyan and Ghanaian associations. Advocates for Youth in collaboration with Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) formalized the idea for the formation of the Nigerian chapter. This was done in conjunction with eight other youth serving organisations in Nigeria.

The objectives of the association are:

• To oversee adolescent reproductive health programs in Nigeria
• To facilitate the exchange of information and ideas among youth-serving and youth organisations
• To lobby with a unified voice for the attention of government, health care providers and other agencies to the need of youths
• To jointly search for viable solutions to the problems of early pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted disease and AIDS among African youth.
• To build the capacity of youth-serving and youth organisations
• To liase with government, donors and other stakeholders for provision of enabling environment, resource mobilization and effective youth programming.
  

Special focus areas for the organization include advocacy, information sharing and capacity building for members.

Health, Youth, Family Planning, Reproductive Health, Networking of organisations.

The organisation cannot fulfill its mandate because of logistics and financial problems. But at the first National Conference on Adolescent Health, in Abuja the need for revitalizing NAPAHD was revisited and a five-man committee was set up to run the affairs of the organization. The conference recognized the role of networks in advocacy especially to government and donors. It noted that networks like NAPAHD will give a unified voice to adolescent health needs and help in the implementation of the strategic framework.

The organization has since been going through transformations in order to equip it to meet the challenges of an effective network for youth serving non-governmental organizations. The five-man caretaker committee has been able to call and hold four capacity building meetings for its members in the last nine months. They share information among members regularly and have been advocating for young peoples' reproductive health and rights in the country. Its membership has increased to thirty-eight and has for the first time been able to fix and collect dues from its institutional and individual members.

Membership is opened to all youth serving organizations in Nigeria and all individuals who are interested in adolescent health.

Membership registration fee is N2,000

Annual dues (organization) N10,000

Annual dues (Individual) N5.000.