Youth Think Tank

In Fancophone West Africa, despite a lot of progress made and a significant momentum in terms of Reproductive Health and Rights, the indicators still need to be improved. All OP stakeholders agreed that the ambitious objectives of the Ouagadougou Partnership can only be achieved if the needs of adolescents and young people are sufficiently taken into account.

Given its mandate and scope, the Ouagadougou Partnership has a key role to play in ensuring that young people and adolescents are included in the FP movement in Francophone West Africa, in order to improve their access in the region to quality family planning information and services.

For example, the Ouagadougou Partnership Youth Advisory Group proposed the establishment of a “Youth Think Tank”.

The Youth Advisory Group was created after the fourth OP Annual Meeting to translate into concrete actions the commitments and recommendations related to youth and made by them.

Nature and missions

The Youth Think Tank is a reflection platform that brings together young leaders and a group of Ouagadougou Partnership actors working in the area of SRHAY/FP, which aims to transform into concrete actions and activities the commitments and recommendations made on and by young people regarding RH/FP. Its role is to ensure that the OP’s priorities concerning youth are adapted and determined by, with, and for youth by ensuring their active participation in the reflections, processes, and interventions in the area of family planning and reproductive health. It does not aim at the operational coordination of projects implemented by the member organizations of the Think Tank on Youth, but rather at facilitating a regular sharing of information, reflections and a strengthening of collaborations. It also aims to contribute to the implementation of the OPCU’s youth strategy, in which the members of the Think Tank for Youth are involved.

Its mission is based on the following four themes

1. Monitoring the implementation of second-generation NBSAPs: This requires the full involvement of young people from the planning stage onward and a better understanding of these plans by young people,
2. Identify RH/FP activities targeting youth in the region and monitor their effective implementation,
3. Follow-up on commitments made to and recommendations for youth.
4. Implementation of the OP’s youth strategy

Objectives

• Define strategic and technical orientations so that the OP countries and partners can implement the recommendations  concerning adolescents and youth.
• Serve as a mechanism for the exchange of information and learning exchange between young people and OP partners on the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of interventions and the promotion of best practices geared towards adolescents and youth.
• Promote the active participation of young people in the reflection, decision-making and implementation of youth-related interventions in the OP space.
• Establish mentoring systems in which mentor organizations support young leaders and their associations/organizations, as mentioned in the OPCU youth strategy.

Areas of intervention

The activities of the OP’s Youth Tink-Tank are based on a certain number of commitments, recommendations and strategic documents related to SRHAY and family planning in the perspective of achieving  OP the objectives and the SDGs. These include, but are not limited to :

• The roadmap of the OP’s Youth Think Tank
• The OP’s youth strategy
• The CIPs
• National youth policies
• The countries’ strategic plans for SRHAY,

The implementation of the activities will be done through a participatory annual planning.

The areas of intervention include:

• Mapping of youth to highlight their needs by subgroups in order to better target interventions for youth as a whole
• Mobilizing resources to potentially fund some of the TTJ’s joint initiatives
• Capacity building of TTJ members organizations
• TRAINING: The TTJ is designed to train youth in: data collection; producting legislative, political, programmatic analyzes including CIPs; structuring a framework of demands for advocacy.
• Strengthening coordination, collaboration and partnership
• RESEARCH and innovation: Document the implementation of the SRHAY, including the CIPs and the effective participation of youth. Produce recommendations on what works/doesn’t work “according to youth” in their country and region on an annual basis (the Youth for Youth, by Youth Report).
• DISSEMINATION: Support the dissemination of information, good practices and expertise produced by the TTJ at various regional and international meetings.

Composition and operation

The Youth Think Tank will operate under the presidency of the OPCU through a secretariat, a steering committee and thematic groups, which will ensure the reflections and exchanges around the themes of the roadmap.

• Secretariat: It will be co-lead by a mentor organization and a youth-led organization. This accompaniment should include organizational capacity building for the youth-led organization and financial resources for a youth staff member to co-facilitate. The Secretariat will also be the point of contact for the OPCU and would lead the meaningful participation of youth in OP/OPCU activities, such as the Donors Caravan, Ministerial Meeting, OP Annual Meeting, etc. The Secretariat will coordinate the structure of the Think Tank and will be responsible of the coordination of the sub-committee.  It will also play a role in the accountability of the sub-committees. The secretary will change annually.
• Subcommittee and Leaders: For each proposed theme of the roadmap, a sub-committee led by a mentor organization and a youth-led organization will be created. Each sub-committee will be headed by a leader who will be responsible for facilitating its theme, coordinating its members around reflections related to the issues raised by their theme, and presenting the results of the sub-committee. This animation will be done in coordination with a youth organization.
• OP Donor Subcommittee: As part of the implementation of the OPCU youth strategy, a donor subcommittee will be established. The role of this subcommittee is to mobilize additional resources for youth engagement, advocacy and services while coordinating the activities of the partners they fund.

Eligibility

Membership criteria : organizations

• Be an organization or structure with a mandate and/or demonstrated interest and commitment to FP/RH for youth in the region
• Being a member of the Ouagadougou Partnership
• Commit to :
  • Participate in at least 60% of the teleconferences, and allocate at least 6 hours per quarter to Youth Think Tank activities
  • Play an active role in the implementation and monitoring of the roadmap, in one or more themes. Each organization will need to identify a lead person to represent them and a backup in case they are not available.
  • Participate regularly in at least one thematic group
  • Take a proactive role in mentoring adolescents and youth. Each organization will be asked to identify one or more youth organizations to mentor based on the needs expressed by the organizations.
  • Provide guidance on increased youth participation and listen to youth proposals on their participation
  • Share relevant information to the follow-up of the roundtable recommendations, including initiatives, projects, events, studies, etc. related to adolescent and youth RH/FP in the sub-region.
  • Participate in the planning of joint Think Tank activities, such as webinars, presentations at conferences/fora, reflections, project writing if necessary… etc.
  • Share updates on the Think Tank activities with their organization/structure

Membership criteria: young leaders

Youth leaders play a key role in the Youth Think Tank. Youth leaders should represent at least half of the members of the Youth Think Tank.

• Be a member of an association or network of young leaders for RH/FP in OP countries and able to consult with other members of his/her association/network regarding Think Tank activities.
• Be able to attend at least 60% of the teleconferences, and allocate at least 6 hours/quarter to the Youth Think Tank
• Be able to play an active role in the implementation and monitoring of the roadmap
• Be prepared to walk the talk
• Be able to share key information with the Think Tank
• Provide input on the vision and strategic plan
• Provide guidance on ways to increase youth participation
• Provide input and/or seek expertise on issues related to youth and FP
• Participate regularly in the activities of at least one Think Tank thematic group
• Share information relevant to the follow-up of recommendations, including initiatives, projects, events, studies, etc. related to adolescent and youth RH/FP in the sub-region.
• Participate in planning joint Think Tank activities, such as webinars, conference/fora presentations, etc.

Membership form

The Ouagadougou Partnership was launched at the Regional Conference on Population, Development and Family Planning held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in February 2011 by the nine governments of francophone West African countries and their technical and financial partners to accelerate progress in the use of family planning services in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is based on two principles. It relies on better coordination among donors to optimize their support to countries and also on collaboration and cooperation at the national and regional levels to address the high rate of unmet need for family planning

The Partnership’s primary goal is to reach at least 2.2 million additional family planning users in the nine countries by 2020. This goal may seem low at first glance, but it is actually quite ambitious given the country context of low contraceptive prevalence rates, socio-cultural barriers, weak health systems, weak political commitment, and limited funding.

Given its mandate and scope, the Ouagadougou Partnership has a key role to play in ensuring that youth and adolescents are included in the FP movement in Francophone West Africa and in improving access to quality family planning information and services for youth and adolescents in the region. Thus, the Ouagadougou Partnership’s Youth Advisory Group proposed the establishment of a “Youth Think Tank.

The Ouagadougou Partnership Youth Think Tank is a platform that brings together youth, international organizations, and donors to reflect on issues related to adolescent reproductive health and youth in order to propose innovative and appropriate solutions to better address the needs of youth in programs and projects.

If you want to work for the youth cause, then join us:  https://rb.gy/3d2le