Youth-led initiatives put the focus on bodily autonomy and sexual health
SUMITA THAPAR - CNS
2022 Asia Youth Festival on Innovation and Sexual Health and Reproductive health and rights
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The Asia Pacific region is home to 60% of the world's young population - 750 million young people of all genders aged 15 to 24 years. Many adolescents and young people in the region continue to transition to adulthood with inadequate information, including on matters of sexual and reproductive health and rights, that affects their physical, social and emotional well-being. At the same time, honing the leadership abilities of these young people can make them effective advocates for social change by proposing and implementing creative solutions for the most pressing issues that are affecting societies.
When design thinking and social innovation converge
In mid-September 2022, over 70 youth changemakers, mentored by Malaysia-based Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), gathered in Kuala Lumpur to link and learn at the 2022 Asia Youth Festival on Innovation and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. They were part of ARROW's Changemakers Programme launched in 2020 - a leadership programme that blends social innovation and design thinking, intersectionality, and sexuality to empower diverse young people to become torch bearers for social change.
Participants from several countries shared the work that they are doing in their communities to drive positive social change that is pivotal to sustainable development in the region.
According to Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director, ARROW, the youth changemakers programme helped in building the youth movement for sustainable development in the Asia region. "The COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity to look at the existing gaps in sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and marginalized communities in societies. We needed to see how to move the agenda - of sexual and reproductive health and rights - forward," she says. As donor funding shrinks and gets diverted to pandemic response, the importance of social entrepreneurship to ensure sustainability is inevitable, she adds.
Youth leaders strongly believe that it is crucial for young people, especially those from marginalized communities, to not only have correct information but also access to services related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
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