The YP Foundation

This month, I’m proud to spotlight the YP Foundation, a long-time member of PMNCH and a strong advocate for the rights of young people and their recognition as equal stakeholders and transformative leaders. They have been key in advancing meaningful youth participation in decision making regarding issues that affect them. The YP Foundation is part of the PMNCH Adolescents & Youth Constituency and operates in India, where adolescents and youth represent nearly 20% of the population.  Their focus areas include safe abortion, accessible health services, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), adolescent girls’ leadership, and masculinities and gender-based violence prevention.  

I would like to highlight their campaign “Know Your Body, Know Your Rights,” which has been successful in empowering adolescents and youth across the country by delivering stigma-free and rights-affirming information on issues of health, sexuality and human rights. The campaign aims to fill an information gap that has made young people vulnerable to challenges like violence, HIV, abuse, and gender inequality through a youth-led advocacy model to promote CSE with a three-pronged approach: (i) training youth-oriented organizations to take up long-term Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programming and advocacy, (ii) implementing CSE curricula in marginalised communities, and (iii) engaging with government programmes and policies towards increasing young people’s access to SRHR services and information.The engagement of the YP Foundation as PMNCH members has also been instrumental in developing the Advocating for change for adolescents toolkit and distributing it in India. Their commitment to building networks, strengthening capacities and promoting engagement of all stakeholders, from grass roots to political leaders at the national, regional and local levels, has been key to the integration of the adolescent well-being framework into the national agenda. Further, their guidance in operationalizing the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement has been invaluable to PMNCH.

Future strategies for the YP Foundation include public awareness campaigns to broaden the horizon of adolescent health and wellbeing and empower young people through increased access to information, services, and leadership opportunities.  We look forward to their continued engagement and partnership, and welcome Dr. Souvik Pyne, Senior Program Officer of Policy Engagement and Research into the newly formed Partner Engagement in Countries Committee.

Learn more about the YP Foundation and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.