News

On 8 and 9 September 2021 , AFIDEP joins stakeholders in a symposium to discuss evidence and best practices for policies and programs on adolescents and youth (AY) in Kenya in the age of COVID-19.

Themed, ‘COVID-19 and beyond: Accelerating use of evidence to maximize on opportunities to improve health and livelihood of AY in Kenya,’ the symposium will be held virtually between 2.00 – 6.00pm (EAT) on both days.

Dr. Eliya Zulu, Executive Director at AFIDEP will deliver a keynote presentation on the ‘value of evidence for decision making’.  Dr. Bernard Onyango, Senior Research and Policy Analyst will facilitate a session on the legal and policy environment for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) in Kenya – challenges, opportunities and implications.

Among others, results of a research study by Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) will be discussed during the symposium. PMA Kenya, who are the lead conveners of the event, implemented the study in Nairobi since 2019 (2020 and 2021) to measure awareness, use and acquisition of contraceptive methods among both male and female adolescents and youth. Further, the study generated information to help understand COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and impact on SRH, and gendered dimensions of social, economic, safety impacts and mitigation measures.

Kenya’s adolescents and youth continue to experience a myriad of livelihood difficulties that among others limit their access to education, employment opportunities and source of income that ultimately curtail their contribution to national development. The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated these challenges and further threatened to undermine efforts made over the years towards improving the livelihoods and health of AY including sexual and reproductive health and rights.

It is against this backdrop that PMA Kenya will be bringing together a broad group of stakeholders who have conducted research studies related to adolescent and youth’s health, gender, and impact of COVID-19; as well as policymakers and program implementers who could use the data to inform policy and programs while responding to the AY needs.

Specifically, the inter-organizational symposium aims to:

• Disseminate AY findings by gender in the areas of contraceptive use and dynamics, and gendered dimensions of SRHR, safety, social, economic impact of COVID-19, through the sharing of research findings that have been conducted recently by selected organizations in country;
• Strengthen the culture of evidence use for decision-making by providing an avenue for stakeholders to reflect, analyse and prioritise use of evidence for decision-making; and
• Identify opportunities that youth and youth serving stakeholders can maximize on to respond to problems and needs of the group, by having stakeholders engage in the sessions that can identify, discuss and prioritise effective evidence interventions which can support in addressing AY specific needs

Recommendations and strategies emerging from the symposium will be developed to respond to ASRH need in the age of COVID-19. Additionally, it is expected that multi-stakeholder collaboration/relationships will be strengthened  to advance the country’s AY policies and programs, including those specific to gender equity.

The Adolescent and Youth symposium is supported by multi-sectoral partners that include the Kenya Ministry of Health (MoH), National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), Amref Health Africa, African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), Advance Family Planning (AFP), Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAWKenya), African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Population Council, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Kenyatta University Women’s Economic Empowerment (KU-WEE), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH -Kenya).

Register for symposium: https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rPNXoSZdT1mj0LI6Zxpf7Q