For social change to take place it has to come from two-sides: bottom-up and top-down. Meaning, not only do social attitudes in the community need to change, but governments need to establish and implement policies to reflect the progress. If a government introduces a progressive policy on sex education, for example, they will have to create a way to enforce this policy as well as to ensure that attitudes are changing on the local level. This is needed for social change to take place. Similarly, if a grassroots organisation or an individual starts creating change on the community level, to ensure legal and systematic change nationally, they have to lobby the government to improve the state policy. The government must be held accountable to reflect, in policy, the progress that is being made in society. This article highlights several examples of how youth activists and youth-led organisations can hold their governments accountable on matters of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
“Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters relating to sexuality and the reproductive system.” – Girls not Brides
Different Routes to Holding Government Accountable
With all the resources and new technologies available to us today, youth activism often takes innovative paths to change, straying from what the usual campaigning looks like. One case of this is the uplifting work of Memory Banda, a Children’s Rights Activist from Malawi, who held her government to account on the critical issue of forced early marriage. Child marriage is an issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as, “In order to enjoy good SRH, individuals need to be able to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights (SRR), which include: freedom to decide whether, when and with whom to engage in sexual relationships… and freedom to enter into marriage with consent” (Girls not Brides). In 2014, one in every two girls under the age of 18 in Malawi were forced into marriage, and Banda (now 22 years old) decided to create change, after her sister was forced into marriage at 11 years old.
By engaging traditional leaders into changing the societal norm of early forced marriage, Banda then alerted the government of their protest via text message. She recruited fellow activists and community members into texting every Member of Parliament they could get the number of, until their relentless protest forced the government to realize that they had to do something. In 2017, the government of Malawi passed a law stating that marriage under the age of 18 was illegal.
Another case of this is the work of the renowned Jaha Dukureh a women’s rights activist and anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) campaigner from The Gambia. In 2015 Jaha, a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage, returned to Gambia from the United States to start a youth-led movement against FGM. Jaha worked alongside women’s rights and civil society organizations to successfully ban the practice of FGM. She chased the then-President Yahya Jammeh, who was on a political tour, from village to village. Two days after their meeting Gambia banned FGM. In 2017, following the ban on FGM in she travelled through the Gambia to raise awareness on the issue using the documentary “Jaha’s Promise” which details her life and work to end FGM.
There are a variety of ways that young people can work with ‘adult’ actors on issues of SRHR, while ensuring meaningful youth engagement takes place. Youth-adult partnerships mean that young people can have access to spaces they would normally not (such as government consultations) and be an integral part of decision-making. A recent example of this is a partnership between the YP Foundation (TYPF) and Population Foundation of India (PFI) where they held a discussion at the national level on the importance of young people having the information, agency, and access to make informed sexual and reproductive choices. They met with the government to ensure SRHR would be a priority moving forward and were met with an open dialogue from the government and other state stakeholders. Partnerships with adult-led organizations give young female activists access to new advocacy spaces and allows them the opportunity to hold their governments accountable.
Social change is cyclical in nature. What comes first, the government policy or community-led movement? Whichever the answer may be, the next step is always to hold governments accountable. Not only to make good on their SRHR commitments, but to constantly enforce, reevaluate, and improve. Young women are a force of nature, and as these examples show, we are ready to take any course of action possible to ensure SRHR commitments are kept.