JOICFP | JOICFP Approach

Movah! (Movement for ASRH)

Let's Continue to Make a Movement for ASRH!
(JOICFP eNEWS December, 2007 )

"We should not stop the Movah! Project. This workshop was very useful and we learned a lot. We should continue this ASRH project, it is very important!"

Emal, a Youth Mobilizer from Afghanistan, delivered a strong message to JOICFP representatives. He was one of the participants for the Movah! Regional Dissemination Workshop 2007 under the UNFPA Asia Regional ASRH Project, and there were many similar comments from other participants, as well.

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Movah! stands for “movement for ASRH”, which supports young people’s initiatives in advocating and taking actions for promoting their sexual and reproductive health and making their voices widely heard at the community, national and regional levels.
In accordance with the ICPD PoA, we aim at contributing to increasing young people’s access to SRH related information and services, helping them make informed and responsible choices and decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health, and participate in decision making processes which are related to them.
In order for young people to take actions as frontline runners, adults also need to be approached and empowered for creating an enabling and supportive environment. Therefore, Movah! Project approaches both adults and young people.
With JOICFP’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), namely “Digi Plan” and “Approduction”, voices and real stories of young people at the grassroots level are made into strong advocacy tools toward policy and decision makers.

Background
Even with efforts toward ASRH, further extensive advocacy efforts are necessary to impact policies and programs for adolescent SRH (ASRH) at different levels, from community to national levels in order to fill the existing gaps among policies, programs, and actual situations young people have been facing, especially those who are in disadvantaged situations.

In the past, advocacy for ASRH programs have been mainly conducted by adults who are concerned with ASRH. Although young people have been involved in ASRH activities as mainly peer educators, their roles and functions have been limited. Their participation in decision making processes is often ad hoc and they are invited when adults want to seek for their opinions. However, as people who know their needs better than anyone else, young people need be empowered as active players and initiators for change. It is also a right of young people to be involved in decision making on those which are concerned with them.