With complications related to childbirth the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 and 2 million adolescents living with HIV, young people will significantly benefit from the GFF’s success and should be meaningfully involved throughout the GFF process. In this blog series, we meet three youth participants from our GFF Francophone workshop held in Senegal in October 2018. Each person will share their experience and what engaging with the GFF means to them.
Advocating for youth-led change
Aminata is a lawyer by trade, now working in the field of gender and human rights in Senegal. She heads the Gender and Human Rights Office of the National Youth Alliance for Reproductive Health and Family Planning, leading efforts to open the dialogue between youth and community leaders, and forging collaborative relationships to reduce maternal and
new-born mortality...Continue reading
Aminata is on Twitter @beaminatbadian1
Massita is a Young Ambassador for Reproductive Health and Family Planning based in Burkina Faso. She conducts outreach activities aimed at improving reproductive health and access to family planning for young people. She is an expert at documenting her experiences in the field, and using social media to influence and motivate change...Continue reading
Massita is on Twitter @MassitaSanon
Magnifique is a maternity doctor at Kigali University Hospital. He is currently pursuing his training in obstetrics and gynecology and was recently elected Vice-President of the African Youth and Adolescence Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN) for Rwanda. He is also the Vice-President of WATOG, the World Association of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and will be representing the interests of the organisation’s members globally for the next
three years...Continue reading
Magnifique is on Twitter @irakmagnifique
Opening-up to new methods of activism
Activists like Aminata, Massita and Magnifique have made huge progress in shifting young people from being just a subject of global conversations, to becoming an integral part in leading the conversation. Their use of social media has opened-up new methods of activism, and allowed them to become part of civil society’s efforts to ensure transparency, inclusivity, and accountability of the GFF.
However, barriers remain. Youth continue to struggle to access the information needed to engage with the GFF, and their voice can remain overlooked by other, more traditional stakeholders. Workshops such as the E4A-MamaYe GFF workshop for Francophone CSOs are crucial in bridging this gap, by bringing together stakeholders from a wide range of civil society constituencies and equipping all with the capacity, information, and tools, to engage with and disseminate GFF-related information within their own networks and accelerate progress towards better RMNCAH-N.