Youth Must Be in the Lead to Achieve Gender Equality for All

Sandra Manyanye, a community-based facilitator for violence prevention for adolescent girls and youth women, facilitates a group discussion during JSI’s side event at Women Deliver 2023.

According to the UN, there are 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24 years in the world, and 600 million are adolescent girls and youth women (AGYW). Youth, especially AGYW, have specific needs and opportunities to improve their health and well-being throughout different stages of their lives. More than 1.2 million adolescents die every year, mostly due to preventable causes such as violence, self-harm, infectious diseases, and maternal conditions. We are not on track to achieve gender equality per Sustainable Development Goal 5; at the rate we are going, it will take 300 years to end child marriage and more than 200 to close gaps in legal protections. This calls for greater commitment and aggression: we need more investments and action to advance gender equality now!

In honor of International Youth Day, we, a group of young adults who facilitated a JSI-hosted Women Deliver 2023 conference youth-related side event, are highlighting what we heard from our peers. Read the full story on JSI’s Medium account.

By:

• Belindar Kwamboka, Communications and Social Media Associate, HCDExchange
• Laetitia Kayitesi, Senior Researcher, YLabs
• Sandra Manyanye, Community Based Facilitator, Violence Prevention for AGYW, Bantwana Zimbabwe
• Sonia Umutoni, Junior Communications Designer, YLabs
• Swarali Pandare, Youth Leadership Hub Associate, HCDExchange
• Toure Sira Sojourner, FWA Ambassador/HCDExchange, SRH Intern with UNFPA
• Victoria Quaynor, Youth Leadership Hub Associate, HCDExchange