Strengthening Adolescents And Youth (Say) Empowerment And Rights Programme
Introduction
The Strengthening Adolescents and Youth (SAY) Empowerment and Rights is a four-year Programme that responds to the increasing Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) needs among refugees and host young people in West Nile and Acholi sub-region. It is part of the Danish Country Strategic Framework for Uganda (2023-2027) and will run from January 2024 to December 2027.
This Programme builds on the lessons learned from the Women, Adolescents and Youth (WAY) Programme implemented by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and partners from 2018-2023 in 11 districts. As a follow-up on WAY, the Embassy re-engaged UNFPA to manage and lead the implementation of the SAY Programme. UNFPA will implement the Programme with selected CSO Implementing Partners (IPs) and Strategic Partners and closely with the District Local Governments (DLG). The Strategic Partners are the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MoGLSD), the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), the National Planning Authority (NPA), and District Local Governments (DLGs). The CSO IPs are CARE International in Uganda (CARE), Marie Stopes Uganda (MSUG) and Naguru Teenage Centre (NTC). The partners were fully involved in designing and formulating the SAY Programme.
The outcome objective of SAY is increased access to and utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) information and services among young people aged 10-24 years in refugee settlements and host communities. To achieve this, the Programme will use a three-pronged evidence-based approach focusing on creating demand, strengthening service delivery and strengthening the enabling environment at the community and district levels. It shall empower young people to demand and access SRHR/SGBV information and services, foster an enabling environment at the community and district level for young people to exercise their SRH rights, prevent SGBV and scale up the availability and accessibility of youth-responsive SRHR/SGBV services using differentiated service delivery models.
The program’s primary beneficiaries are refugees and host young people aged 10-24, especially adolescent girls and young women. The Programme shall intentionally target young persons with disabilities and ensure their inclusion throughout the implementation. Secondary beneficiaries include; parents and guardians of young people; local opinion leaders at the community and district level (political, cultural, religious) youth leaders; health care providers, teachers, women of reproductive age (25-49) and policymakers at regional and national level.
Scope
The Programme is being implemented in three refugee hosting and two refugee-affected districts in West Nile and Acholi Sub-Regions, namely Adjumani, Obongi, Lamwo and Moyo, and Kitgum, respectively. The program’s target ratio for the refugees to host communities will be 50:50 within the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
Programme Objective
The specific Programme Objective is to increase access to and utilization of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) services among young people6 aged 10-24, especially adolescent girls and young women, in refugee settlements and host communities in five districts in the West Nile and Acholi sub-regions.
Our Mandate on the SAY program:
NTC is mobilizing and building the capacities of youth leaders, youth-led grass root organizations, youth groups and young people, empowering them to claim and exercise their SRH rights, adopt protective, preventive and healthy behaviors, and to demand and access SRHR and SGBV services.
NTC is leading the community-based interventions targeting adolescent and young boys and girls (including out-of-school) at the community level – working closely with CARE to ensure linkages and synergies with the school-based and GTA activities to create an enabling community environment for young people. NTC will support young people in Programme review and planning processes to ensure full youth participation and ownership of the approaches and results.
