An assessment conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria and POLICY resulted in the selection of Edo State and a local partner non-governmental organisation (NGO), Women's Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC) in Benin City. WHARC has assisted with activities like visiting local NGOs working in youth, RH, FP, human rights, and women's issues to gauge the level of interest in a youth advocacy network and to assess the extent of skills and resources. Once a core group of interested organisations, individuals, and church groups was identified, POLICY and WHARC organised a meeting to launch the network.

Still in its nascent stages, the network will work through meetings in an effort to begin the process of developing a strategic plan to present to the state government. Following a needs-based assessment, a state-level advocacy training workshop will be conducted for members of the network to provide additional information on key YARH issues and to refine the strategic plan. Data from research will be used to help craft advocacy messages, which will be conveyed through meetings that use visual aids such as PowerPoint, that are designed to convince politicians and other policy makers to support the strategy.

Political Development, Youth, Reproductive Health, Family Planning, HIV/AIDS.

Programme organisers cite these figures: One in five people in Nigeria are in the 15-24 age bracket, comprising 22 million in 2000. Young Nigerians face risks associated with early sexual debut and marriage and with early pregnancy and unsafe abortion. Sexual abuse and female genital mutilation (FGM) are also common. Contraceptive use is 6.6% among 15-19 year olds and 16% among 20-24 year olds. In 1998, 60% of reported AIDS cases in Nigeria were among 15-24 year olds. While abortion data are sparse, available evidence suggests that the majority of abortions occur among teenage girls.

A large number of NGOs in Nigeria are involved with YARH, but most of these NGOs are involved in small neighbourhood programmes. In 1999 a local youth-oriented NGO, Action Health International, organised a national YARH conference; in response, the Federal Ministry of Health published a draft National Strategic Framework for Adolescent Reproductive Health. However, neither this national strategy nor the accompanying policy has been acted upon. Since services and budgets are disbursed at the state levels, the state government is the most appropriate starting point. Edo State was selected for this effort, specifically, because of the number of issues facing youth, as well as because of the dearth of donor projects, in that state. These activities will provide a model for other Nigerian states and other POLICY countries.