SRHR Alliance Miranda van Reeuwijk PARTOS 10 april 2014

1. Waithood & restricted futures: What this means for adolescent/youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights SRHR Alliance Miranda van Reeuwijk PARTOS 10 april 2014

2. Zoom in: Sex as a strategy among Tanzanian youth • >75% of youth cannot continue with secondary education and difficult to find jobs / sustainable livelihoods • Continue to live at home and contribute to household economics / doing ‘small jobs’ • Boys: Wait with marriage until enough money to get own house and support wife & kids • Girls: wait for boy/man who can support them

3. But no passive waiting; • Strategies to find alternative ways to gain social status, money, independence, self-esteem • Sex important strategy! • Transactional sex • Permanent partner + temporary partners • Conflicting norms and expectations leading to sex as secret strategy

4. Consequences for SRHR • Risky sex: multiple partners and condoms hardly used: • Limited risk perception: Assessment of sexual history as strategy for risk management • Boys do not feel responsible for pregnancy • Gender norms prevent girls from bringing / asking for condoms • Hard to access information, contraception, services • Hard to prevent and report sexual violence  Increases vulnerability to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, STIs, HIV, sexual violence, etc.

5. How to address these challenges? • Realize, be honest about and accept the importance of sex for unmarried youth  positive approach rather than danger or health approach • Abstinence and Being Faithful messages do not fit the realities of large groups of youth (even contribute to conflicting norms and expectations) • Knowledge alone insufficient to create behavior change, need for structural interventions

6. Next to complete and accurate information: need for building skills (sexual interaction competence) & critical reflection on gender norms = Comprehensive Sexuality Education • Facilitate easy access to contraception and youth friendly SRH services (addressing social stigma, structural barriers in health systems) • Creating Enabling Environment: sensitization of adults on the need for CSE and YFS; addressing harmful social norms and power relations; lobby and advocacy • Improving educational and job opportunities; Poverty Reduction

7. Youth Participation • Young people not passively waiting for this to happen: enormous potential force for positive social change • Meaningful youth participation in civil society organisations key element to creating social change • Facilitating and equipping young people to be involved in programme design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation, research and advocacy

8. SRHR alliance examples • Young people are helping each other in getting access to information, commodities and services • SRH services becoming increasingly youth focused and youth friendly • Young people are successfully advocating with their local leaders, schools, district and national governments for CSE, for by-laws on child marriages, FGM, access to emergency contraception, safe abortion services etc. etc.

9. Thank you www.srhralliance.orgm.vanreeuwijk@rutgerswpf.nl