Enhancing Youth Advocacy Through Multimedia Campaigns

Enhancing Youth Advocacy Through Multimedia Campaigns

This PIA MIMI created video on contraceptives was inspired by the Population Reference Bureau. The initiative began as an idea for meaningful youth participation given that young people’s voices are always sedated whenever it comes to highlighting their thoughts and beliefs. In this video PIA MIMI sought to deconstruct the sedation of young people’s voices and let young people speak their mind and literally take control of your future.

Date

June 18, 2020

PRB

Focus Area

Children, Youth, and Families

PACE’s Youth Multimedia Campaigns training program equips youth advocates with the skills to create innovative digital campaigns, tell compelling population health stories, and build movements for policy change within their countries.

Using data-driven multimedia and events, youth participants collaborate with their peers to share powerful advocacy messages focused on the health and well-being of their communities. The PACE training program supports the institutional growth of youth-led organizations as well as a burgeoning network of youth leaders passionate about population dynamics and reproductive health.

PACE has partnered with competitively selected youth-led teams in Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Uganda to amplify their policy advocacy on topics such as youth-friendly family planning services, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), child marriage, gender-based violence (GBV), fistula prevention, and maternal health.

Three youth-led advocacy organizations—from Malawi, Nepal, and Nigeria—joined the 2021 training program, where they built or strengthened their storytelling, video production, policy communication, and social media engagement skills. Youth used these skills to develop a new multimedia advocacy campaign pushing for advancements in youth sexual and reproductive health or environmental protection in their communities. Alumni fellows from Bridge Connect Africa Initiative were among the training coaches for the 2021 program and presented several sessions.

Participating youth and their organizations receive tailored technical and leadership training and ongoing mentorship around techniques in policy communication, fact-based and data-driven advocacy, and multimedia production (text, graphics, images, video, and audio). Using accessible technology, including mobile phones and social media platforms, PACE-trained advocates build engaging campaigns focused on specific policy advocacy objectives, targeted at their peers, communities, and key decisionmakers. As part of the program, youth advocates are also expected to provide technical assistance and training to other youth in their communities, passing down their skills, expanding the reach of their campaigns, and sustaining local youth-led policy advocacy.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Bridge Connect Africa Initiative

Two Nigerian activists, Sani Muhammad and Mubarak Idris, participated in the inaugural year of PACE’s Youth Multimedia Campaigns training program in 2018 and quickly established themselves as outstanding and committed population and reproductive health youth champions. With support from PACE, Muhammad and Idris successfully launched their youth-led organization, Bridge Connect Africa Initiative (BCAI), and partnered with PACE to lead the 2019 training program for two new youth teams in the Kano and Kaduna States of northern Nigeria.

The two campaigns, focused on ending child marriage and increasing access to youth-friendly family planning services, each generated positive policy change. After seeing the PACE-sponsored video and social media campaign generate broad support, the governor of Kano State made a public declaration to end child marriage through support of the Child Protection Bill. While the legislation is still pending, sections of the bill that provide for compulsory schooling for all children as a way of tackling child marriage have been adopted into a state-level policy. In Kaduna State, the governor’s chief of staff committed to sharing a video message to call on the state government to promote availability and access of family planning services for women and young people.

Alumni Showcase

Multimedia campaigns produced by alumni from each cohort of the Youth Multimedia Campaigns training program are highlighted here.

2020 Campaigns: Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Sudan

2019 Campaigns: Kano and Kaduna States, Nigeria

2018 Campaigns: Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda

End Child Marriage by Sani Muhammad and Mubarak Idris, Nigeria.
Let Your Voice Be Heard by Imali Ngusale, Kenya.

The Pakistan project team is funded separately by PRB.

Accessibility of Family Planning Services in Kaduna State: A Story from Rigasa Community

Young people are often judged and misunderstood for seeking information and services relating to their sexual and reproductive health. Working with a team of young people in Kaduna state with support from the Population Reference Bureau, young people are standing up to bring their issues to the fore of government priorities in accessing family planning information and services.

Child Marriage in Kano Nigeria: A Call for the Domestication of the Child Protection Bill (2018)

Child marriage is one of the biggest problems in northern Nigeria, leading many young girls to drop out of school, and contributing to the high rates of maternal and infant deaths. Working with the Population Reference Bureau, we trained a team of young sexual and reproductive health advocates who used their smartphone to amplify voices of these girls.

End Child Marriage

Meet Zainab! A mother of two who was married out as a child bride. Like Zainab, over 6 million girls in Nigeria are forced into marriage at age 15, and live with dire consequences. Hear and Share her story. #SpeakUp. Let’s join the conversation to end child marriage.