Campaigns and outreach

In 2022, PMNCH began planning for the Global Forum for Adolescents and longer-term 1.8 Billion Young People for Change campaign. Three action groups were formed for the Global Forum, compromised of over 100 PMNCH partners (see Leadership in Annex 2), following a widespread call for participation.

Seeking to elevate the voices and needs of young people in the campaign and the Forum, PMNCH worked closely with the White Ribbon Alliance to adapt the successful participatory methodology of the What Women Want campaign to the needs of the 1.8 Billion youth campaign. This has involved the development of a WhatsApp-based chatbot to solicit the voices and inputs of young people. This effort, called What Young People Want, will mobilize the voices of 1 million young people from all regions of the world, working through voluntary mobilizers, White Ribbon partners in Africa and Asia, EWEC-LAC, and PMNCH adolescent and youth grantee organizations in 11 countries. The results of this massive outreach effort will be analyzed and developed into an Agenda for Action for Adolescents, to be launched with the Forum in 2023.

In October 2022, the 1.8 Billion campaign was officially launched with a curtain raiser online event and the launch of the #1point8 website and What Young People Want initiative. The 30-minute programme amplified the findings of the BMJ series and conceptual framework for AWB.

Then 1.8 Billion campaign was amplified after the curtain raiser at high-level global events, including the ICFP in Thailand, where a campaign booth drew in a large number of conference participants.

Also at ICFP, the PMNCH-led MAYE practical guidance resource was launched. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) included the document in the guidance for countries undertaking voluntary national reviews (VNR) for the High-Level Political Forum in 2023.

Another highlight in 2022 was inclusion of agreed language on the centrality of the well-being of adolescents and youth to achieving the SDG Goals. PMNCH supported Members States involved in negotiating and adopting the UN Third Committee resolution by providing suggested language and evidence to support the inclusion of adolescent and youth well-being in the resolution. In follow up, the Director General of WHO sent a high-level memo to the eight WHO Regional Directors, copied to country representatives’ offices, to inform them about the Global Forum for Adolescents in 2023 and urging them to support commitment mobilization for AWB as part of the VNR process.

Finally, in April, the global summary report of multi-stakeholder consultations on programming to promote adolescent well-being, coordinated by PMNCH across eight WHO regions with participation of more than 1000 people, was launched at ECOSOC 2022. The event was also highlighted at the 145th IPU Assembly in Kigali at the Forum for Young Parliamentarians and the Advisory Health Group, and at COP27 at the Children and Youth Pavilion and the Green Zone.