HIV/AIDS – SRH | Talent Youth Association

HIV/AIDS – SRH

ICASA 2011 Pre Conference Call to Action

This call to action represents the commitments and expectations of over 300 young people from across Africa and the Diaspora who have met in Addis Ababa from the 1st to 3rdDecember 2011 for the ICASA Youth Preconference.

Endorse the Africa Youth Charter as it provides a holistic approach in addressing the realities (opportunities and challenges) of the delivering the youth agenda. It provides a legal platform for the implementation of a comprehensive youth policy framework.

Recalling the recommendations of the ADF V Consensus document (2006) on Youth Leadership in the 21st century, the 3rd Conference of African Ministers in Charge of Youth (COMY III), the African Union Youth Forum (2011), the Malabo AU Heads of States Summit (2011) on Accelerating Youth Development in Africa.

Taking note of the progress made towards achieving MDGs 6 across the continent including the fact that 22 countries in Sub- Saharan Africa have reduced incidence of HIV by 25 percent,

Bearing in mind that young people are not merely passive beneficiaries but effective agents of change. Dedicated, enthusiastic and creative, they have a great potential to advocate effectively for their right to SRHR and for the availability of a wide range of services,

Appreciating that,

• Young people in Africa constitute a large proportion of the total African population, they are often unable to access SRH services especially commodities and services that may be available to adults, for a variety of reasons, including affordability and cultural dynamics.

• Progress towards universal access targets have been slow and requires concerted and deliberate efforts on the part of all stakeholders

• Some socio-cultural factors perpetuate stigma and discrimination against youth and represent significant barriers to distribution and utilization of SRH services

• Existing sexual and reproductive health services are insufficiently responsive to the heterogeneous characteristics of the youth particularly in paying attention to the unique needs of certain sub-groups of the population

We, the youth of Africa, pledge to:

i. Build and strengthen the capacity of youth leaders and youth organizations as part of our response to HIV in Africa

ii. Hold our governments accountable to their commitments

iii. Incorporate and reinforce sexuality education in our peer education interventions

We therefore call on governments, partners, donors and all stakeholders to:

• Ensure more strategic allocation of financial resources towards the AIDS response whilst taking innovative steps to increase funding using local sources such as financial transaction tax and public-private partnerships

• Create or expand a budget line for the provision of Reproductive Health Commodities for youth

• Support youth led initiatives to be financially sustainable and take advantage of the AUYVC to strengthen our capacity across the African continent

• Ensure young people’s access to comprehensive and targeted sexuality education, following international standards, which acknowledge the specific needs of the diversities of young people including most at risk adolescents, YPLHIV, and especially young sex workers, and those with disabilities.

• Develop a youth HIV database which provides a set of indicators for a baseline against which we can measure progress.

• Ensure availability of strategic age and sex disaggregated data for young people and appropriate indicators for most vulnerable populations in age bands (10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29,30-34) for evidence-based programming

• Take specific steps to improve the quality of health services to ensure that they are youth friendly, such as involvement of young health professionals in the design and implementation of HIV services and ensure the elimination of all barriers to access.

• Convene a youth technical group, through the AUYVC and in support of the Malabo Decisions, that will lead on development of an African HIV/AIDS position/agenda and to revise targets towards the post 2015 discussion

• Develop a definition of and common targets for universal access for young people.

We accept the responsibility we have as young leaders and pledge to hold ourselves accountable to the same degree that we will hold you accountable.

Partnership, Networking Technical Assistance

Partnership and networking are the main approach which TaYA uses to collectively act on issue of our common concern with youth serving organization and the government. It actively engages in establishing new partnerships with government and youth organizations to best respond to some of the development challenges young people are facing. Since TaYA has long years of experience and proven expertise in the fields of youth development we providing technical assistance to emerging youth led organizations and other who would like to start a youth development program in areas of resource mobilizations, build partnership with the government, peer education, partner child communication and gender programming.

Reduce the Incidence of HIV/AIDS Among Young People

TaYA has a well proven experience in implementing effective HIV/AIDS prevention activities targeting adolescents. Our programs focus on addressing young people age 15-29 in both urban and rural settings. We develop locally tuned and age appropriate IEC/BCC materials, design innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS by integrating it with live hood activities to decrease susceptibility of low income women, community based programs involving parents and community members.

Empower Women to Exercise their choice in Regards to their Sexual and Reproductive Live

TaYA strives to create a gender sensitive society which will honor and appreciate women sexual reproductive health rights and needs. This is addressed in two ways. Mainstreaming gender issue in all the project outlets of TaYA is the one. In all our project undertaking we make sure equal number of both sexes adequately represented and participated in the programs. The second approach is by developing appropriate projects after conducting needs assessment to tackle the root cause of gender inequality in the community. We promote participation of males to create a gender equitable society. Particular focus is given to address the rights and needs of adolescent girls and young women. We have seen encouraging results as a result of these approaches.

Improving the Capacity of other Youth-Serving Organizations

TaYA currently work with 19 grass root youth led organizations by providing financial, material and technical support. TaYA is well experienced in youth development programs in Ethiopia. We are providing trainings to youth serving organizations on facilitation, club management, peer education, effective communication skills, and parent child communications. Onsite technical assistance to this other organizations who would like to establish youth development programs in Ethiopia

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Kasahun has a business degree from a local college. After graduating,

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