Women's Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights

Governments, United Nations bodies including the Division for the Advancement of Women, and international agencies should:

Include at least one young woman in working groups, planning committees and delegations to United Nations commissions and conferences and give her the authority to officially present the youth concerns of her country;
Require that youth programs that receive public funding involve and integrate young women in the planning, implementation and monitoring of services;
Include young women in a voting capacity on decisions around young women’s health;

NGOs and community-based organizations, in collaboration with governments, should:

Leadership:

Design programs to serve young women’s health needs with the input and leadership of the targeted population;
Include young women on visible decision making bodies such as boards of directors, allocations committees, and advisory boards;
Provide young women with access to medical information, training and stipends to enable them to become peer educators;
Involve young women in outreach and enable them to design campaigns, that speak in the voice of youth, to inform other young women about health care opportunities;
Provide young women with the opportunity to confidentially evaluate health programs, services and staff;

Adult Education:

Provide comprehensive training for health providers and practitioners on confidentiality and how to treat young women with respect;
Collaborate with other health and youth service providers to effectively deliver comprehensive health care for young women;
Encourage adults to educate themselves about how health impacts young women.

Donors, foundations, governments and international agencies that fund women’s health and youth programs should:

Commit to providing resources to young women’s health on a long-term basis, including providing more money for research on women’s health and the compilation of disaggregated data;
Fund health organizations, programs and projects that are conceptualized, run or coordinated by young women;
Include young women in decisions regarding the allocation of funds for young women’s health programs;
Educate other donors about young women’s health needs and organize briefings on young women’s health where young women are presenters and/or moderators.

Media sources including print, radio, television, and the Internet should:

Commit to presenting positive images of young women that aim to break down societal stereotypes;
Sponsor campaigns which provide young women with information on healthy habits and appropriate health care;
Commit to publishing young women’s views on their health needs.