Power to Youth partners shared good practices, challenges, and lessons learnt during the Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) Linking and Learning Symposium in Kenya from April the 12th to the19th. Given that the GTA task force set out to capture stories of change in 2024, the symposium was aimed at facilitating and supporting countries to reflect on their implementation of GTA as a key thematic within the Power to Youth program, as well as highlight the good practices, and impactful stories in their journeys.
To strengthen collaboration and build synergy, the symposium featured workshops on the following: developing key advocacy messages from a gender transformative approach lens, using storytelling as an approach for changing of mindsets, managing backlash, and working together to engage skeptics and transform challenges into opportunities, using GTA to promote sexual reproductive health and rights, and sharing updates of some stories of change by participating countries, among others.
As one of the intersectional approaches used within the Power to Youth Program in transforming communities and raising change agents, GTA constitutes six principles: human rights as a basis for all interventions, examining power dynamics, addressing harmful gender norms and cultural practices focusing on empowerment of women and girls, and meaningfully working with men and boys for gender justice.
By the end of the symposium, Power to Youth Partners identified GTA good practices for replication and gained more clarity on incorporating gender transformative approach in their programming.