Youth Community Advocacy Project (Y-CAP)

The Youth Platform - Services - Business - Youth Community Advocacy Project (Y-CAP)

Youth Community Advocacy Project (Y-CAP)

The situation facing young Zambians HIV Burden

Out of a population of 16.2 million, there are an estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) (all ages) in Zambia.  This figure is expected to increase to 1.3 million by 2020.9 HIV prevalence among the adult population has steadily decreased over time, from 15.6% in 2001-2002, to 14.3% in 2007, to 13.3% in 2013-2014. More recent data from the ZAMPHIA survey suggests that HIV prevalence has continued to decline, with an overall adult HIV prevalence of 11.3% recorded in 2015-2016. Despite this progress, there remain distinct gender- and age-related disparities in HIV burden, with 14.5% prevalence among women compared to 8.6% prevalence among men. This disparity is most pronounced among young people aged 20-24, where HIV prevalence is more than four times higher among women (8.6%) as compared to their male peers (2.1%).

Adolescent and Youth Participation

Over the years the adolescents and youth movement has been divided across Zambia. This project provides us an opportunity to unit and further strengthen the voice of adolescents and young people in Zambia. ZYP believes that adolescents and young people are part of the solution and can achieve much more if meaningfully engaged. The youth network hopes to ensure that the needs and rights of young people in Zambia are upheld and respected in Global Fund and other supported programmes that in turn benefits Zambia as a whole.

  1. To strengthen and amplify the voices and technical capacity of 500 adolescents and youths (aged 10 – 35) to meaningfully engage in policies and programs that affects their health and rights by 31st December 2020.
  2. To build a supportive and consultative process that reaches and includes more adolescents and youths (aged 10 – 35) across Zambia from national to key district levels by 31st December 2020.

 

ZYP shall employ the main network strategies to respond to the above challenges; 

  • Movement building – ZYP through its inclusive membership shall mobilize individual adolescents, young people and youth groupings at community, ward, and district, provincial and national level to create a movement of adolescents and young people who will continue to influence positive change in society.
  • Activism – ZYP shall facilitate the transformation of adolescents, young people and their organizations into activists on various issues affecting them in society. 
  • Coordination – ZYP shall work towards enhancing coordination among civil youth movements in Zambia. The organization will do this through bringing together all the isolated adolescent and youth voices and interventions in order to build a bigger and influential voice of the majority yet the marginalized population on key issues.  
  • Capacity development – we recognise that effective and meaningful participation of adolescents and young people in various decision making and policy related platforms require skills, knowledge and expertise. ZYP shall continue to facilitate capacity building, information sharing and learning opportunities for adolescents and youth leaders at various levels.
  • Innovative Platforms – ZYP through this strategy shall create and manage innovative and relevant digital and physical platforms for improved communication and information dissemination for adolescents and young people across the country and beyond. 
  • Evidence Generation – ZYP places high value on community research and practices this through its Social Accountability Mechanism as the organisation conducts routine community based monitoring and uses the findings for advocacy at national and regional level.

 

  1. Conduct one project orientation meeting with key staff and volunteers 
  2. Develop 6 quarterly advocacy briefs that highlights barriers associated with access to youth friendly SRH and HIV services and key interventions urgently required by young people and adolescents in Global Fund and other interventions in the country 
  3. Conduct 4 key informant interviews in each of the 10 provinces.   
  4. Hold 2 breakfast meetings with policy markers
  5. Hold strategic meetings with select parliamentary committee on health.
  6. Popularize the national adolescent health strategy 2017 – 2021 among adolescents and young people in Zambia using social media platforms.
  7. Hold 1 national intervention consensus building meeting with adolescents and young people.
  8. Conduct 9 provincial dialogue meetings with adolescents, young people and PHO staff.
  9. Conduct 40 focussed group discussions with 400 adolescents and young people in the 10 provinces of Zambia.