1. SRHR Alliance Miranda van Reeuwijk PARTOS 10 april 2014
Waithood & restricted futures: What this means for adolescent/youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
SRHR Alliance
Miranda van Reeuwijk
PARTOS 10 april 2014

2. Zoom in: Sex as a strategy among Tanzanian youth
>75% of youth cannot continue with secondary education and difficult to find jobs / sustainable livelihoods
Continue to live at home and contribute to household economics / doing ‘small jobs’
Boys: Wait with marriage until enough money to get own house and support wife & kids
Girls: wait for boy/man who can support them

3. But no passive waiting;
Strategies to find alternative ways to gain social status, money, independence, self-esteem
Sex important strategy!
Transactional sex
Permanent partner + temporary partners
Conflicting norms and expectations leading to sex as secret strategy

4. Consequences for SRHR
Risky sex: multiple partners and condoms hardly used:
Limited risk perception: Assessment of sexual history as strategy for risk management
Boys do not feel responsible for pregnancy
Gender norms prevent girls from bringing / asking for condoms
Hard to access information, contraception, services
Hard to prevent and report sexual violence
 Increases vulnerability to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, STIs, HIV, sexual violence, etc.

5. How to address these challenges?
Realize, be honest about and accept the importance of sex for unmarried youth  positive approach rather than danger or health approach
Abstinence and Being Faithful messages do not fit the realities of large groups of youth (even contribute to conflicting norms and expectations)
Knowledge alone insufficient to create behavior change, need for structural interventions

6. Next to complete and accurate information: need for building skills (sexual interaction competence) & critical reflection on gender norms = Comprehensive Sexuality Education
Facilitate easy access to contraception and youth friendly SRH services (addressing social stigma, structural barriers in health systems)
Creating Enabling Environment: sensitization of adults on the need for CSE and YFS; addressing harmful social norms and power relations; lobby and advocacy
Improving educational and job opportunities; Poverty Reduction

7. Youth Participation
Young people not passively waiting for this to happen: enormous potential force for positive social change
Meaningful youth participation in civil society organisations key element to creating social change
Facilitating and equipping young people to be involved in programme design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation, research and advocacy

8. SRHR alliance examples
Young people are helping each other in getting access to information, commodities and services
SRH services becoming increasingly youth focused and youth friendly
Young people are successfully advocating with their local leaders, schools, district and national governments for CSE, for by-laws on child marriages, FGM, access to emergency contraception, safe abortion services etc. etc.

9. www.srhralliance.org m.vanreeuwijk@rutgerswpf.nl
Thank you