The YP Foundation and the Guttmacher Institute held a youth led national virtual dialogue: “Youth Insights on Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” to explore the Adding It Up report, as well as the insights gathered over the course of the six State level consultations. The YP Foundation and the Guttmacher Institute collaborated in the development of “Adding It Up report.
The virtual dialogue attendees included officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), State and district officials working on RKSK and Family Welfare, technical agencies, young people, activists, and national NGOs and CSOs working on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The event also held space for a multi stakeholder dialogue where several representatives from technical agencies and national organisations like Population Foundation India (PFI), Ipas, UNFPA and Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) as well as officials on behalf of the Adolescent Health Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) gave inputs on the recommendations that were presented out by young people and shared further good practices, existing gaps in programmes and priority areas.
The final segment of the meeting presented the toolkit on contraception advocacy developed by the YP Foundation which was used as an integral part of the engagement to build the capacity of the six youth cohorts. The toolkit will be launched next month for public access in five languages (Assamese, Odia, Marathi, Hindi and Malayalam). The toolkit is aimed at young people who are interested in contraception advocacy and adolescent sexual and reproductive health policy and programming in India.
The participants included Susheela Singh, a distinguished scholar and vice president for Global Science and Policy Integration, Guttmacher Institute, Manak Matiyani, executive director, Souvik Pyne, senior program officer, Policy Engagement and Research, Shruti Venkatesh, coordinator, Policy Research from The YP Foundation, youth cohort members Arjun Unnikrishnan, Ragini Bordoloi and Prerna Laddha.
