UNFPA - WORKING WITH TODAY'S YOUTH FOR A HEALTHIER TOMORROW

With nearly half of the world population under the age of 25, UNFPA recognizes the crucial importance of investing in the youth as being critical in laying the foundations for a more prosperous and peaceful future.

Guided by the ICPD and various other associated International agreements, UNFPA places special priority on activities that ensure a healthy transition from youth to adulthood.
In its efforts to safeguard and promote the rights of the youth, UNFPA provides the young people of Georgia with the necessary tools and knowledge for a safer, healthier and a more promising future.

RH Initiative for Youth in South Caucasus
Implementation period 2006-2009

Guided by the ICPD agenda, UNFPA addresses the issues of reproductive health and rights of the youth by raising both, public awareness as well as the knowledge of the youth on reproductive health and rights, building capacities for youth friendly SRH services and strengthening regional partnerships aimed at the development of youth and their health.

Goal: A large scale and multi partnership initiative spearheaded by the EU and UNFPA to improve RH and sexual health of the youth within the three Caucasus countries: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Activities and achievements:

In its effort to promote safer sexual behaviour among youth through awareness raising and knowledge building activities on sexual and reproductive health and rights, almost 310 peer educators, including 80 from the most vulnerable groups were successfully trained on youth S&RH and RR. The project reached out to more than 28,000 young people through its educational sessions conducted by the trained peer educators at summer camps in various regions of Georgia.

To foster communication among the youth, UNFPA has come up with modern, as well as interactive regional and national websites. TV and radio spots have been developed and aired, including talk shows on various TV stations. In addition, more than a hundred thousand brochures and promotional materials have been printed and currently are in the process of distribution. Furthermore, 36 journalists were trained and contests were conducted on youth S&RH and RR. In order to gain public support and mobilize communities, UNFPA has successfully organized workshops and town-hall meetings, which were attended by 700 parents, 1,300 teachers and 2,000 representatives of civil society in various regions of the country.

As another major step, Concept Paper on youth reproductive health and rights education is being developed in an inclusive and participatory process, which is based on the findings of the Youth Reproductive Health Survey carried out in 2007.

Maintaining its progressive attitude, UNFPA has introduced innovative approaches to further enhance the capacity for delivering youth-friendly S&RH information and services. In this direction, 415 nurses, 220 family doctors, 260 Ob/GYNs, 190 military medical professionals and 110 pharmacists have been trained throughout the country.

UNFPA has also contributed to the establishment and development of youth friendly S&RH services by setting up 9 new centres in Tbilisi, Batumi, Gori and Mtskheta. It is expected that by the end of the project term, a total of 20 similar centres will be operational throughout the country. Promoting the access of youth to high quality and affordable condoms, the project supports the social marketing of “Favourite” brand condom, which is distributed through both traditional and non traditional channels.

In a world where teamwork leads to success, UNFPA has laid special emphasis on inter-country collaboration on youth S&RH and rights.  In partnership with European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (EPF), it brings together members of the Government, experts, civil society, youth organizations and mass media representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Annual Youth Reproductive Health Forums and South Caucasus Youth Festival held in Georgia to promote healthy life style, youth-adult partnerships, policy dialogue and knowledge sharing.

Within the frames of these events, numerous variety of educational and promotional activities have been organized to prioritize the issues concerning youth and their health on the top of the public agenda, and advocate for increased Government commitment. A significant development in this area was the extraordinary Declaration of Commitment on the promotion of Youth S&RH and Rights in the South Caucasus, which was elaborated and signed by all representatives.

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