Publications on Young People

This report provides an update to the 2013 report highlighting recent legal and policy trends and developments affecting the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people in Asia and the Pacific. The review considers recent legal and policy developments that are supporting or impeding countries in meeting the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development relating to SRHR, which include achieving universal access to SRH services and ending the HIV epidemic by 2030. The report has a particular focus on whether countries recognize the evolving capacities of adolescents in their laws and policies on the age of access to contraceptives, access to safe abortion services, HIV testing services (HTS), age of consent to sex and the minimum age of marriage.

The country case studies are a supplement to the report Young People and the Law: Laws and Policies Impacting Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region: 2020 Update, which provides a broad overview of whether countries in the Asia and Pacific region recognize the evolving capacities of adolescents in their laws and policies on the age of access to contraceptives, abortion services - where legal, HIV testing services, and age of consent to sex. The case studies illustrate how policy development concerning the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people have proceeded in six diverse country contexts. They provide insight into the challenges of securing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people and the mechanisms of positive change.

This guidance is intended to assist anyone designing and/or implementing CSE in out-of-school settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This includes international and national civil-society organizations, community-based organizations, government departments, UN agencies, health authorities, non-formal education authorities and youth development authorities. It is also intended for anyone else involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of sexuality education programmes out of school, especially those working with the specific groups of young people addressed in the guidance.

The guidance presented in this document is intended for digital health intervention designers, developers, implementers, researchers and funders. Newcomers to digital health can use it as a start-to-finish primer on how to collaboratively and responsibly develop youth-centred digital health interventions. Those already engaged in this work can jump directly to the chapters and sections with the ideas and resources they need. Funders will find helpful advice in Annex 1, which outlines special considerations for making smarter, more meaningful investments in digital health interventions for young people.

A priority for Youth LEAD in 2019 was creating a strong organisational foundation between youth network partners, which led to the development of the Organizational Development and Change manual. The manual will be finalised and rolled out later in 2020. Similarly, the Legal Advocacy Toolkit, TeenGen and NewGen training was carried out in various countries, and more importantly, The YKP Small Grants Programme supported eleven YKP-led organisations in nine countries across Asia and the Pacific.

Youth LEAD, the Asia Pacific Network of Young Key Populations, is one of the recipients of the Global Fund- CRG Strategic Initiative long-term capacity development grant. Within the grant, various YKP-led networks and organizations are supported to meaningfully engage in the GF funding request development process. Youth LEAD Mongolia (YLM) is one of the grantees to have received that support.

This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people.

The Youth Solutions Report is a flagship annual report under the Sustainable Development Solutions Network featuring youth-led solutions that offer sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. The Youth Solutions Report 2020, the fourth edition, captures key lessons and insights from 50 youth-led initiatives contributing to the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Selected by an Advisory Panel comprising world-leading experts and crowdsourced from a vast network of partners, these youth-led solutions demonstrate the transformative role of young people in the realization of the 2030 Agenda. The Report also includes analysis by a range of partners on how to address barriers that hinder the contribution of young people to sustainable development.

This formative assessment on the needs of adolescents and youth at risk presents the experiences of adolescents and young people including those from key populations and the perspectives of experts working with young people in the four domains: education, parental and peer support, communication and mental health – in relation to HIV risk and prevention, and broader sexual reproductive health rights, including perceived needs, access to and use of services, and barriers and opportunities for young people.

A new report by UNAIDS, Power to the people, released ahead of #WorldAIDSDay, shows that where people and communities living with and affected by HIV are engaged in decision-making and #HIV service delivery, new infections decline and more people living with HIV gain access to treatment. When people have the power to choose, to know, to thrive, to demand and to work together, lives are saved, injustices are prevented and dignity is restored.