Survey of the activities in 2006
Please download the third newsletter of the Youth Incentives Fund. It is a survey of the activities of the Fund in 2006.
Fourth Board Meeting of the Youth Incentives Fund, Rwanda, May 2007
This year the annual Board meeting for the Youth Incentives Fund was organised by ARBEF in Rwanda, Kigali, on 15 - 17 May 2007.
The annual Board meeting is meant to monitor the projects that are carried out in the framework of the Youth Incentives Fund, and discuss the successes and challenges. The participants have an opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices for the implementation of the RAP-rule in their projects. Furthermore, a subject that is related to working with young people or the RAP-rule is deeper explored, this year's topic was 'rights based programming and management'.
All representatives of the different projects expressed that the Participation of young people in their activities is well established. Young people are involved in development and carrying out of the different activities and in most projects they have a say in decision making. The challenges, expressed by all participants, concern the A of Acceptance of young people's sexuality. In order to meet the sexual and reproductive health and rights needs of young people we need a conducive environment that accept that young people are sexual beings. Teachers, parents, community leaders and religious leaders therefore need to be on board as well.
Linked to the Acceptance of young people's sexuality is the Rights-based approach. By recognising and acknowledging the sexual and reproductive rights of young people, we also accept that young people have sexual and reproductive health needs. The Rights-based approach starts with rights-based management in organisations. During the Board meeting the participants explored the conditions to do so.
The day after the Board meeting, ARBEF organised a site visit to Huye, the South of Rwanda, where the Youth Incentives Fund project is implemented. A youth club with young people who are taking care of their siblings (child headed households) welcomed the board members with singing, dancing and a theater play. This meeting with enthusiastic young people living under difficult circumstances, was very inspiring and touching.
We thank ARBEF for the wonderful organisation of this year's Board meeting and the site visit.
Third Board Meeting of the Youth Incentives Fund, Kenia, July 2006
The Youth Incentives Fund organises annually a boardmeeting for the responsible projectmanagers and representatives of the involved youth organisations. This time the members of the Youth Incentives Fund met eachother in Mombassa, Kenia (10 - 12 July 2006). At this meeting we welcomed the project coordinator Jeffrey Mtengula and the executive director Effie Pelekamoyo from the Family Planning Association in Malawi as new members. Chantal Umuhoza, the youth representative from Rwanda and Mossamat Tahmina Begum, the young field coordinator from Bangladesh joined this time the meeting. The members of the Youth Incentives Fund agreed that via a rotation system representatives of the youth organisations from 2 different countries will be invited for the boardmeeting. With Doortje Braeken as chair we discussed the progress of the different projects.
The implementation of the projects in Rwanda, Tanzania and Bangladesh have started at the beginning of 2006. It is wonderful to see that a lot of things have been put in place to undertake the activities. Dieudonne Gatete, the project manager from ARBEF, Rwanda told us about the stakeholders meetings, the 'organisation scan' of ARBEF and YAM (Youth Action Movement) and the radio shows. The next step will be to establish the clubs for the children who head households. The board recommended a.o. to involve those children in the implementation of the project. Diedonne assured that this will happen through the clubs.
Shoaib Jalil from the Bangladesh Family Planning Association explained that the 4 young fieldcoordinators were appointed. Staff of FPAB and the fieldcoordinators received training in how to use the RAP-rule in their activities and how to discuss sexuality in an open and positive way. The peereducators have reached already many young people with information on different issues related to sexuality. The collaboration between the young fieldcoordinators and the adults is not so smoothly and the boardmembers advised to have a closer look at the youth-adult partnerships and organise a training. Shoaib told that a youth-adult partnership training is planned for end of August.
Herman Mbunda, the project coordinator from UMATI told the board about their sexuality education programme for young people of the age of 9 to 19 years. One of the first activities was the revision of the existing manual for sexuality education with the use of the RAP-rule. The board recommended to include staff of health services in the activities that will be organised for the teachers and parents and vice versa. A strong link between the education activities and services activities is necessary to be able to refer the young people for their sexual and reproductive health care needs.
Effie Pelekamoyo, the executive director from FPAM showed us the results of the needs assessment, carried out with the revised RAP-tool. Malawi is a new member of the Youth Incentives Fund and has started with the needs assessment last April. She was very pleased with the RAP-tool and shared with us the most striking results. Jeffrey Mtengula explained the project proposal, based on those results. The project proposal deals with creating a conducive environment for young people and their sexual and reproductive health needs. The project is very ambitious and the boardmembers advised to focus on a specific group (e.g. parents) in the communities.
On the last day of the meeting we had the opportunity to visit the youth centre in Mombassa, organised by Family Health Options. This dynamic youth centre that is totally run by young people themselves showed many activities for, with, and by young people. As youth participation was a hot topic during the discussions at the board meeting, this youth centre
was a very nice example that youth participation works! The next boardmeeting will be in May 2007 in Rwanda.
Survey of the activities in 2005
You can download a survey of the activities of the Youth Incentives Fund in 2005. The survey is available in English or in French .
Association Rwandaise pour le Bien-Être Familial (ARBEF)
You can download the project proposal, the logframe and the summary of the needs assessment of ARBEF / Rwanda.
Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB)
You can download the project proposal and the summary of the needs assessment of FBAP / Bangladesh.
Second Board meeting of the Youth Incentives Fund, September 2005
Representatives of the 5 partnering organisations of the Youth Incentives Fund gathered in Utrecht, the Netherlands from 28 to 30 September 2005. Purpose of the board meeting was to discuss the process of the project development, including the needs assessment and to review the project proposals and decide on funding.
Since the last meeting in March 2005 all member associations of the YI Fund, together with their collaborating youth organisations, assessed the sexual and reproductive health and right needs of young people in their country with the help of the RAP-tool. Every member association identified through the needs assessment the most vulnerable youth group and identified the most urgent needs of this group. The member associations and youth organisations have translated the results of the needs assessment into project proposals.
During two intensive days all project proposals were reviewed according to the criteria of the Youth Incentives Fund. The members of the board commented to and assisted each other to adjust the proposals. Conclusion of the meeting was that the project proposals are very interesting because of their approach of new target groups and use of innovative strategies and methods. All partners returned home with a lot of recommendations to adjust their proposals. All proposals will be refined by the end of October. The board will organise a small round of comment through e-mail in the first two weeks of November. Expected start of the projects will be 1st of December 2005.
First Board Meeting, March 2005
In March 2005, members of the Youth Incentives Fund from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Rwanda and Tanzania visited the Netherlands for a study tour. The objective of the three-day tour was to obtain information on and understanding of the Dutch Approach to sexuality and sexual and reproductive health.
The tour included meetings with representatives from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of Rutgers Nisso Groep and +Women of a World, a multicultural and international group for women affected by HIV/AIDS. A visit was paid to the Mildredhuis in the city of Arnhem, a service for abortion and sexual and reproductive health. The tour also included the showing of two videos: one outlining sexuality education in the Netherlands, Germany and France and another used for juvenile sex offenders. All participants found the study tour inspiring for their work.
