WD2023: Supporting youth engagement in SRHR programs

If girls stay in school longer, they're more likely to delay getting married and feel more autonomy over their own bodies, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

That was one of the observations Alice Mukashyaka, one of Women Deliver's Young Leaders, shared ahead of Women Deliver 2023, which is taking place between July 17-20 in Kigali.

Mukashyaka, who is the co-founder of Starlight, a Rwandan ed-tech social enterprise that makes Educational STEM learning fun and introduces high school students to STEM careers, mentorship, and role models, as well the advocacy manager for education and livelihoods at youth-focused NGO Restless Development, also said that many organizations are trying to include young people – but need to involve them at deeper levels.

As part of this year's series on the 2023 Women Deliver Conference, Exemplars News spoke with Mukashyaka about these issues and more, including her personal journey and the importance of the conference being held for the first time on the African continent.

Could you tell us about your journey to being selected as one of Women Deliver’s Young Leaders? What has been your experience as a member of this group and how it has impacted you?

Mukashyaka: I run a social enterprise called Starlight. We work with young people in high school and we try to show them the beauty of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – and really advocate for their overall education, especially for girls. I'm also an advocate for education. In my daily work, I work with Restless Development as the advocacy manager for livelihood and education. I try to bring in the voices of young people, of girls, of people from the global south, to different global platforms.

It's been a truly invaluable experience and personally I've had significant growth in my personal advocacy work and professional development. I really appreciate my relationship with Women Deliver's staff members. The way they expose us to different global moments to interact with different change makers and decision makers has really helped me to find my niche in this whole journey. It's been such a fantastic experience.

Could you tell us more about your work with Restless Development?

Mukashyaka: I do advocacy work in education and livelihoods. For example, I coordinated a group of 12 young researchers from different corners of the world to explore barriers that young people face accessing education. We came up with fantastic recommendations that decision makers and other stakeholders could put in place so that education could be more accessible and better financed. Our report was published in the lead up to the RewirEd Summit.

I've also coordinated the Make Education Work campaign with Restless Development and a group of global content creators. We advised the UN Foundation on how they could better engage young people in these global platforms such as the UN General Assembly and the Transforming Education Summit. I'm also supporting the work we're doing with the UNESCO Global Monitoring Report, trying to see if we could get young people involved in the process, especially in the African region. We want to bring the stories of young people into the report, as well as best practices being implemented in different regions.

More broadly, how can youth engagement in SRHR programs and policy development contribute to improving global health outcomes?

Mukashyaka: One way is to include young people [as part of research] so we have more evidence. Also, so many young people are implementing initiatives, another way is involving them – recognizing what they're doing, investing in what they're doing, and then bringing them into the conversation. And after that, supporting them through resource sharing, mentorship, and investment. We should ask ourselves, 'How are we supporting youth-led health initiatives in terms of sub- granting, in terms of resources, in terms of expertise?' And when there is impact, we should share their evidence and knowledge and bring them to the global platforms to share those successful stories and contribute to different briefings and recommendations to high-level decision-makers.

In your personal experience, how have you seen a connection between girls’ education and their health, specifically their sexual and reproductive health?

Mukashyaka: I think education and sexual and reproductive health are closely connected. At Starlight, I've seen that the longer girls in are kept in school, the fewer girls who are going to get married before graduating. We're teaching them to love STEM – when they are doing these subjects and get to love them, they see that they have a little bit of control over who they are. They understand that they have control of their own health and wellbeing and can make their own decision in terms of getting married and understanding their bodies.

How could the voices and perspectives of girls be better represented in global health advocacy?

Mukashyaka: Every single organization I've been interacting with is trying their best to bring in youth delegates and trying to have a youth voice in their policy briefs. But the issue is – are the youth really contributing? If you bring a 20-year-old to the table, but they have no prior experience and you haven't really given them the opportunity to know the team, to understand how you work, that isn't the right way to involve young people. They're just there to be representation, but not necessarily to challenge things or share [their perspectives]. Being in a room of older, knowledgeable people, and you're just a 20-year-old fresh university or high school graduate you feel like, 'I don't know much and it doesn't matter if I don't share my opinions.' We need to be more intentional about how we engage young people, especially girls.

Also, before bringing them into global forums, are we training them on how to better participate? Are we giving them the resources to learn how to do advocacy? How to campaign? How to use digital tools? They might not necessarily be experts, but they have stories from the ground and from the grassroots they could share with the rest of the world and maybe make things more genuine and really put faces to those stories.

This is the first time the WD Conference has been hosted in Africa – is that significant for you and, if so, why?

Mukashyaka: Yes, this is going to be the best because it's the first in Africa and the first in the Global South and the first in Rwanda. I'm from Rwanda, so I feel like this is a good chance to show the side of Africa that works. Most of the time in the media you see the bad narrative of the continent. But this shows a different story.

There's so much to learn from [Rwanda] itself. From the gender perspective, I think the country's really doing well in terms of female representation in terms of parliamentarians and policy making. The country is really trying to bring in the voices of women and it's a big deal.

Finally, for me personally it's such an honor to have young people and other people coming here to exchange, to learn, to share, to collaborate. I'm seeing a lot of potential in terms of co-creating with youth from other corners of the world, in terms of co-creating initiatives and projects, and sharing resources. I'm seeing a lot of potential in terms of business collaboration and in terms of learning from each other and connecting and sharing best practices. And, as I said, really showing the side of Africa that works.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.