Related
Read our latest articles, studies and columns on sexual health and rights.
Young people in Asia and Africa have informed Rutgers’ guide to a new advocacy approach that is fast gaining momentum.
We are the change: a simple guide to youth-led social accountability
There are more than 1.8 billion young people on the planet. This is a mighty number. What if organisations worked in a way that harnessed the collective strengths, knowledge and insights of young people to ensure they have real decision-making power? This is how real change can happen.
Youth-led social accountability (or YLSA) empowers young people to gather evidence to hold service providers, educators and duty bearers to account on issues that matter to them – and it is proving effective.
Now Rutgers has worked with young people and their allies in Africa and Asia to create a new online YLSA guide. The toolkit focuses on using YLSA to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people but can be used on other areas as well. It explains how to plan projects, recruit and train young people, and support them to design and develop data-gathering tools, collect evidence and present it to decision makers.
“Young people know their situations best, so who better to design interventions for young people than them?”
Tweet this text
This guide is designed for both youth-led organisations and civil society organisations that want to know more about youth-led social accountability and are interested in using it in their organisations and programmes.
In this toolkit you will find:
- Descriptions of youth-led social accountability in theory and practice
- The five key steps to use youth-led social accountability successfully
- Resources available to guide you
- Discussion of the potential challenges of taking an youth-led social accountability approach and some solutions
- Real-life examples of interventions in action like community scorecards
