Young People and Family Planning

2010 Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders, Washington DC| Photo credit, Women Deliver

When I traveled for the Women Deliver Conference  in the summer of 2010 with few Nigerian youths as part of the "Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders" I didn't envision that I will be co-facilitating Family planning youth advocacy in Nigeria. The Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders is a group of amazing, inspiring young people under the age of 30 working to build a world where the health and well-being of girls and women is a priority. Throughout the year, they work in a variety of ways to strengthen their skills as advocates, academics, program staff, media, and social innovators.

This is true: When young people are equipped with the right tools and information, they are powerful and critical agents of change. We are seeing this in Nigeria presently with access to social media tools. In April of 2011, the Nigerian Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders and other youth activists met online for the first ever Youth e-consultation on Maternal Health and Family Planning, which lead to the creating of some working Groups, including the Medical Health Worker Youth Advocates under the Nigeria Youth MNCH /FP Advocates. The e-consultation was supported by White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria and Save The Children. The Nigeria Youth MNCH/FP Advocates have primarily been working online with few offline activities like MeetUp and participation at strategic meetings at national and state levels.

In 2012, with inspiration from the London Family Planning Summit and my international advocacy fellowship in Washington DC with Population Action International plus the amazing role of social media in engaging many people globally, myself, and Tope Fashola from EVA lobbied UNFPA Nigeria to promote the participation of young people in the 2^nd National Family Planning summit. 

Historically, Youth participation in FP issues has never been ‘organically’ recognized and/or integrated. With UNFPA Nigeria Support, The first ever Youth Pre-Conference at the National Family Planning Conference was held which brought together more 50 youth advocates form across Nigeria to discuss and strategize how to effectively engaged in the conference and be better youth advocates. One of the  issues discussed at  the pre-conference was the way "family Planning" was been represented in the media and communication graphics as concerning only married couple with one or two children (usually depicted with a man and a woman holding a child). while many single young and unmarried people are sexually active, their interest and needs were not adequately represented in many "family planning" programmes and activities. Young people want this changed.  

Our advocacy worked!!!

Driving through the city of Abuja now, one will see new Bill Boards with information on family planning with a picture of a Man and woman (without the child) that appears  inclusive of young people. These advocacy efforts have now been recognized by both UNFPA Nigeria and the Family Planning Action Group (FPAG), the leading Think Thank on Family in Nigeria. Recently at the Family Planning Action Group (FPAG) retreat and strategy development meeting, which brought together leading experts and development partners to discuss the future of FPAG, I was nominated and selected as the Youth Representative in the new Management Committee of FPAG after series lobbing and advocacy engagement. 

Now recognizing our growth in the FP community and our passion to see more young people integrally involved in all FP design, program and implementation processes, a team of youth FP Advocates paid an advocacy visit to the Health Policy Project in Abuja on the 19^th of March 2013. 

Advocacy Visit to HPP Nigeria, Abuja| Photo Credit: Don Dickerson

The Health Policy Project aims to strengthen policy, advocacy, and governance for strategic, equitable, and sustainable health programming in developing countries. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), HPP focuses on the policy aspects of family planning and reproductive health, HIV, and maternal health in Nigeria. Our advocacy visit was aimed at seeking support for strengthening our individual and institutional capacity for advocacy, and leadership, and  to explore how youth creativity and innovation in Family Planning and reproductive health advocacy can be nurtured and supported. We were received by Donald Dickerson, Program Advisor and Aliyu Ahmed, Progamme Manager. This meeting was one of the most successful meetings that we, the Youth FP advocates have had since the beginning of the year. 

Why is this important? When young people are denied clear, accurate information about sexual and reproductive health, they may be ill prepared for sex and unable to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies. Young people in Nigeria face additional risk as family planning is a controversial  issues because sex is involved. Without accurate information, the population growth will become a great population challenge.

According to Advocates for Youth, a US based Organisation, The challenges of preparing the next generation for adulthood are remarkably similar across developed and developing nations. Adults must recognize that unintended, early pregnancy often results from inadequate access to information and services, unwanted or coerced sexual activity, unprotected sex, or ineffective use of contraception. Youth's unmet need for contraception is greater than among any other age group. 

Watch out for the Youth arm of Family Planing Action Group, YFPAG

Thanks

#FPNigeria
#YFPAG
@estherclimate

TELL ME WHY......

Violence Against Women

This often sounds very abstract and academic but one will be amazed at the number of children and women in our communities who experience one form of violence or  the other daily. Many times, these are close family members and friends and they die daily under the culture of silence. Growing up in a family of five children, one didn't necessary have to ask why many thing weren't working the way we wanted them to, why many children didn't go to school when many of their mates were in schools . 

I remember vividly one occasion  while growing up that changed my life and defined my vision and passion for my now adult life.  

I returned home from school on this particular day and while eating my cold lunch, I heard a loud scream coming form the house next door. It was a girl’s scream. It was my friend’s scream. I didn't see her to school that day. I wondered why?

I was curious. Even more curious as my parent didn’t want to tell me why the scream was so loud. As darkness  came upon us, I sneaked out and went to the backyard to where my friend was, she was still crying.  I asked her why the screaming, the crying and why she wasn't at  school that same day.

I was shocked when she showed her back to me, where her aunt had used a pressing iron to ‘press’ her back. Why would a women do this her?  I asked her. She said that because she didn't sell all the food items she was given to hawk and sell that day.

We were 13 years old. 

Tell me why this will happen to a 13 year old? Even after that incident, the beatings and screaming became a frequent episode.

This experience inspired me to join the Child’s Rights Bridge and Taking IT Global, an online community of change makers, empowered through access to technology.  On my first opportunity to learn about Child Abuse and violence against young women, I was inspired to make my voice heard.  I am empowered by my education and new technology even brings us closer to the issue as well as solution.  speaking with one voice to end violence against women

We need more girls and young women who can speak out against the evils of violence on women and girls. Providing access to education is key to ending violence against women. I am very proud to be among young advocates fighting to end violence against in Nigeria.

Honoring Late Prof. Emmauel Obot at CBD COP11

 Hyderabad, India. Oct.12th 2012

I wish to take this moment today in the mist of global leaders in biodiversity conservation to honor a great leader and mentor, late Prof Emmanuel Obot. Professor Emmanuel Asuquo Obot died tragically o

n Sunday 3 June 2012 in the plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria. Professor Obot was the Executive Director of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, and one Nigeria's leading conservationist, mentor and a strong ally to the Youth Biodiversity Network that he supported because he believe in the future.

Today, he would have been here at ongoing UN Commission On Biological Diversity, to share and inspire as always the movement to safe our rich biodiversity globally and locally. He was my mentor and I will never forget him. His memory will always live on.

Esther Agbarakwe

Biodiversity Young Professionals Forum

Nigeria

Rio+20: The Future We Want for African Youth

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 conference was held in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. At this historical event world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, came together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want. Among them were few African youth delegates

Sustainable development is about the future as defined by Our Common Future; also known as the Brundtland Report states that sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Africa’s future rest on her large youth population who, when given the necessary skills and opportunity to participate, can provide solutions and contribute to efforts towards achieving development goals in local and national arenas. These youth are faced with so many great challenges that may be worse than that of their fore fathers  Many African youths joined their peers as they saw the Rio+20 as an opportunity to contribute to defining the future we want for Africa but was limited to those who had access to related information and opportunity to engage throughout the process.

African youth began as a continent to prepare for this historical conference in October last year at the 2011 African Economic Conference (AEC) and African Regional Preparatory Meeting on Rio+20 held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October 2011. I was joined by many youth who demonstrated their passion for sustainable development by organizing side events and engaging their government.  We were also joined by International NGO and Civil Society organizations. African youths actively participated at this event, mostly under the Youth and Children Major Group of the UN CSD.   As the month moved on, the participation of youth in the process diminished with few youth-led activity on Rio+20 in Kenya, Nigeria and Cameroun  

While in Rio de Janeiro last June, we saw with some great disappointment that that many African government didn’t support many youth representatives to attend the conference and participate in shaping the future, for those who did managed to attend, the capacity to engaged was low compared to their peers form the global north; yet we did our best to lobby and engage our government on issue must close to our heart, Youth unemployment and comprehensive health care, including reproductive health. We believed that Rio+20 taught us something. It gave us as African youth a stronger belief in ourselves, in our ability to fight harder for the future we want with a new and different approach to support efforts for a more sustainable world

As a reproductive rights activist, I was sad that reproductive rights was excluded from the outcome document by governments who had supported reproductive rights over three month ago at the UN Commission on Population and Development held at the UN in May 2012, there they agreed on a landmark resolution to protect and support the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents and youth.

 It was heart-breaking to see governments go back on this commitment. As many African youth are entering their reproductive age, they need correct information on their sexual and reproductive health and rights to make informed decision about their sexuality, about whether or when to have children. The exclusion means that they won’t have the right to a safe sex life, free from diseases. Their right to make these decisions will not be protected ­ they will not be free from stigma and coercion.

African youth have the experience and passion to help shape a better and sustainable future for Africa. They only need the opportunity. We are now looking forward to engaging in the 2015 Post development agenda and high-level political forum on sustainable development which Rio+20 created.

About the Author:

Esther Agbarakwe is currently an Atlas Corps International Advocacy Fellow working with Population Action International in Washington DC. She heads the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition and one of the ‘Youngers’ of the Elders+Youngers Rio+20 Initiative

Blog: www.estheragbarakwe.blogspot.com

Twitter @estherclimate

Email: esther.agbarakwe@nigycc.net

FAMILY PLANNING IN AFRICA

The Word on Women - African leaders renew commitment to family planning

By Babatunde Osotimehin and Sharon Camp

On July 11, at the London Summit on Family Planning, leaders from 18 African countries made unprecedented commitments­—financially and politically—to strengthen their family planning programs.

The summit, sponsored by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), focused attention on the ongoing lack of family planning services for millions of women in the developing world and garnered extraordinary global support and resources to enable 120 million more women to use contraceptives by 2020.

The summit exceeded its target, raising pledges of $4.6 billion over eight years. The call to action came not a moment too soon.

In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 53 million women have an unmet need for modern contraceptives, meaning they want to avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern method.

A new study by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA shows there has been minimal progress in addressing the contraceptive needs of African women during the past four years.

What’s worse, in the 39 poorest countries in the region, the number of women with an unmet need has actually increased since 2008.

Among all sexually active women of reproductive age in Sub-Saharan Africa, 42 percent want to avoid pregnancy but only 17 percent are using a modern contraceptive.

Across the continent, progress in meeting the demand for contraceptive services has been uneven. The situation of married women—who represent the bulk of women with contraceptive needs—is telling.

Between 2008 and 2012, the proportion of married women using modern contraceptives increased from 20 percent to 27 percent in East Africa and from 54 percent to 58 percent in Southern Africa.

However, in West Africa and Central Africa, there was no progress during that time, and contraceptive use among married women remains low at 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Not being able to plan their pregnancies can have devastating consequences for women.

In 2012, more than 160,000 are expected to die in Sub-Saharan Africa from pregnancy-related causes—62,000 of them did not want to be pregnant in the first place, a sobering statistic.

The benefits of improving and expanding family planning programs in Sub-Saharan Africa would be dramatic: There would be 14 million fewer unintended pregnancies; maternal deaths would decline by 29 percent, saving the lives of 48,000 women; and infant deaths would drop by 555,000 annually.

Plus, if women spaced their births by three years, which many would like to do, deaths among children aged five and under would drop significantly.

So, what will it take to make these dramatic gains a reality?

Currently, approximately $381 million is spent each year on contraceptive care in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Expanding coverage to all women who want to use family planning but lack access to contraceptive services would require an increase of $2.3 billion.

This sounds like a lot, but this investment is modest in relation to the remarkable returns it would achieve.

What’s more, it would actually lower total health-related costs. Every dollar invested in family planning services in Sub-Saharan Africa saves $1.30 on maternal and newborn health care—money that could be invested in other critical areas.

In addition to improving public health, satisfying unmet need for modern contraceptives would bring a host of other benefits.

Enabling women to control their fertility and time their births means better chances for higher educational attainment, increased employment opportunities, and enhanced social and economic status.

Family savings and investment would rise, spurring economic growth and reducing poverty. These advances at the family level would in turn make social and economic development goals easier to achieve, benefiting society as a whole.

Evidence from Ethiopia, Malawi and Rwanda shows that, with strong government commitment, significant gains can quickly be made in meeting women’s contraceptive needs.

In Rwanda, contraceptive use among married women increased from 9 percent in 2005 to 44 percent in 2010, a truly impressive achievement.

If the commitments made at the London Summit are realized, and similar ones follow, this kind of progress could potentially become the norm, not the exception.

Now it is up to all of Africa’s leaders and the international community to do their part through a sustained commitment to improving the provision of contraceptive services.

Not only do women want to time and space their pregnancies to achieve healthier outcomes and better lives for themselves and their families, it is their human right to do so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Babatunde Osotimehin is United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of the United Nations Population Fund. Co-author Sharon Camp, is president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/the-word-on-women/african-leaders-renew-commitment-to-family-planning

Rio+20 Photo Story

Press conference between the Elders and Youth delegates: Elders Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Former President of Brazil, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, and Esther Agbarakwe, a youth delegate from Nigeria 


Photo Credit: IISD Reporting Service 

Rio+20: A call for a Young Professional Partnership Forum for Sustainable Development

FLASH: A call for the establishment of a Young Professional Partnership Forum on Sustainable Development at the UN Partnership Forum, Rio+20!


As Sustainable development is about the future and  deeply disappointment by the outcome document, I was invited to speak at the UN Partnership Forum where I called for the establishment of a Young Professional Partnership Forum on Sustainable Development that will consider holistically the ecological, economic and the social aspect of development. 
My speaking slot start at 39.41 seconds

sdpartnerships on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free