MenEngage Africa Youth
Strengthening youth involvement in governance, programmes and advocacy by building their leadership skills on issues of women’s rights and gender justice, which affect young people in all the countries where we have a presence.
In order to advance this goal, it was necessary to set up a structure led by, and for, the youth. The membership of the MenEngage Youth Steering Committee consists of youth-led and serving organisations, and organisations working with women and girls, both at national and regional levels, organisations working with women and girls. At the last count, 58 youth-serving and youth-led organisations from 22 countries belong to the MEA network.
MEA Youth members work collectively towards advancing gender justice, human rights and social justice in key thematic areas including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV prevention. MEA Youth’s highest decision-making mechanism is the MEA Youth annual general meeting (AGM) which sits once annually.
The Alliance is governed by a Steering Committee which is elected by the AGM and made up of sub-regional representatives, strategic partners representing organisations working in MEA’s thematic areas and representatives of key constituencies such as youth, women’s rights and LGBTIQ rights.
MEA Youth members implement joint advocacy initiatives on its priority issue areas at national level with their governments, at regional level with Regional Economic Communities (RECS) and at international levels at various platforms . MEA Youth creates platforms for capacity building and strengthening youth leadership to enhance activism and partnership on gender equality and social justice.
Power(You)the Advocacy Toolkit
This is a practical toolkit for young people, living in Malawi and Uganda, who are passionate about creating change on matters impacting youth, such as eradicating harmful practices, such as Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage, sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) and unintended pregnancies. This toolkit has been developed for you by media and health advocacy experts, together with Sonke Gender Justice staff, to meet the unmet capacity needs established with regards to media advocacy in the PowerToYou(th) (PTY) consortium, in late 2021. However, it is not important if you have never done anything like this before! What counts is you being willing to work together with your peers to create change in your community and your country.