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- 2018 in review
2018 was amazing! We developed a new training manual on youth leadership skills, young people shined like rock stars on our Youth Pride both during Amsterdam Pride, we launched multiple capacity strengthening tools for youth-led organizations, we increased our presence in the Geneva advocacy spaces and our Rights, Evidence, Action (REA) program was extended for another year as a result of positive results.
As a youth-led organization striving for Meaningful Youth Participation (MYP) and youth SRHR we see a growing interest in youth issues and the involvement of young people. The Youth Ambassador SRHR was officially part of the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), there is a strong emphasis on youth involvement in preparations for the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform of Action, the first review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs has recently announced to appoint a Special Youth Ambassador with a specific focus on youth issues. We celebrate these important developments with great joy!
"in a time of increasing back-lash against human rights in international advocacy spaces, it is more important than ever to connect with likeminded partners and build a strong case for SRHR and MYP".
At the same time we need to continue to closely monitor the extent to which young people are meaningfully included. The midterm evaluations of three of our programs brought about many insights in the best practices and challenges of MYP implementation. During the MYP Summer School, young people from eleven different countries discussed the challenges they face when promoting MYP and we found that many of these overlap across countries. Together we brainstormed solutions, shared best practices, and reemphasized our commitment to keep on working together to make a strong case for MYP.
I am super excited that we will start implementing our new Multi-Annual Strategy in 2019. Alongside our advocacy and programmatic work, we will take on the role of knowledge broker and power broken, and we will actively advocate for sustainable funding for youth-led organizations. Furthermore, we will intensify the capacity strengthening of starting youth-led organizations and partner on an equal level with sustainable youth-led organizations, to make our SRHR youth movement as strong and big as possible.
Read more about 2018 in our year report!
Because in a time of increasing backlash against human rights in international advocacy spaces, it is more important than ever to connect with likeminded partners and build a strong case for SRHR and MYP. The coming year will be about extending our current partnerships and engaging in new collaboration with likeminded organizations. We will continue the capacity strengthening of our partners and develop resources to deepen the implementation of MYP, we will strengthen the youth presence in Geneva and New York advocacy spaces and on top of all that we will connect with our partners during our Connector Week and strategize together how to bring the youth movement on SRHR further! I am looking forward to an exciting year and I hope you will be there with us!
Kind regards,
Nathalie Metheuver
Executive Director