 Dear colleagues, This week, our newsletter comes to you from a different perspective. Our names are Yacine, Emma, Samantha, and Sofia, and we are the four youngest members of the FP2020 Secretariat. We want to share our perspectives of what it’s like to be a young person during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to elevate the voices of other young people around the world who have shared their own thoughts about how we can get through this chaotic time together. Firstly, we want to acknowledge the privilege of working for an organization that provides health care coverage, paid time off, and an understanding environment. We do not take this for granted, and we want to use our experience to lift the voices of young people across the globe. Last week, FP2020 co-hosted a Q&A with the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP), and young people from around the world. The participants asked questions about access to contraception, safe sex, how to help young people organize around sexual and reproductive health needs, and the anxiety young people are experiencing. Despite our different circumstances, these questions hit home for each of us. Even here in Washington DC, getting a prescription for birth control and venturing out to retrieve it is no easy task – especially with stay-at-home orders and limited access to public transportation. Buying condoms can be anxiety-inducing in normal times, and now the risk of COVID-19 infection or transmission makes these types of trips even more stressful. In addition, young people are worried for their futures, with education and careers that may be put on hold because of stay-at-home orders. How can young people work together to continue to make progress for access to family planning services, despite these challenging and unprecedented circumstances? We have seen how health care systems can adapt and innovate when faced with a crisis. These shifts provide an opportunity to create more access to reproductive health supplies and to use our extensive networks to spread valuable information and lessons learned. We also want to call upon established voices, like those at WHO Human Reproduction Programme, to listen to young people, and to use their power to give young leaders the autonomy and trust to continue our work. As Dr. Chandra Mouli said in the Q&A, “It’s important to acknowledge and address the diversity of adolescents.” We want to highlight the diversity and the combined power of young advocates from all over the world. Check out on our newly launched Instagram account, run by young people, for young people. Find all four of us on Instagram at @familyplanning2020 to see what young people around the world are doing to combat COVID-19. Young people are the future of the family planning movement. COVID-19 may be an unforeseen threat to the progress our community has made, but we will continue to find new ways to work toward a brighter future. Yacine, Emma, Sofia, and Samantha Read key takeaways from the Q&A hosted by WHO, FP2020, and IYAFP from Cate Lane, Cate Lane, FP2020 Director, Adolescents Youth, and watch the whole discussion on FP2020’s website. Would you rather receive these emails in French? Sign up here. COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: SENEGAL
 The fight against COVID-19 is also happening on social networks. #JögCiCovid19: “Debout contre le COVID-19,” is the name of the digital campaign targeting teenagers and young people in Senegal, initiated by the African League of Bloggers in Health, Population and Development (LAB Santé) in partnership with UNFPA.
RESOURCES FROM THE FIELD UGANDA YOUTH AND ADOLESCENTS HEALTH FORUM: Webinar recordings Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum (UYAHF) is a youth-led and youth-serving organization that seeks to advance health, rights, and well-being of adolescent girls, young women, and young people at community, national, and global level. Their webinars focus on a range of topics, including making the case for sexual and reproductive health in COVID-19 response.
IAWG: Advocacy social media toolkit The Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crisis (IAWG) urges the international community to ensure that women and girls in humanitarian and fragile settings, continue to have access to life-saving sexual and reproductive health services and supplies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Now you can join in and support the IAWG efforts with this social media toolkit!
KNOWLEDGE SUCCESS: 20 Essential resources for family planning This collection of essential resources is for program planners, designers, and implementers who want to understand and measure social norms and social norms-shifting interventions and incorporate it into their work.
UNFPA: COVID-19 technical brief for maternity services Limited data are available on COVID-19 in pregnancy, but the studies published to date do not show an increased risk of severe disease in late pregnancy or substantial risk to the newborn.
THE LANCET: Early estimates of the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study While the COVID-19 pandemic will increase mortality due to the virus, it is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this study, experts estimate the additional maternal and under-5 child deaths resulting from the potential disruption of health systems and decreased access to food. UNFPA Asia Pacific: Global response to COVID-19 must address rights and needs of women and girls In a week in which people in some parts of the world have been given cause for optimism that they have passed the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen how the extraordinary actions of individuals can change the trajectory for a whole nation. Read more in this statement from Dr Natalia Kanem, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
LOOKING AHEAD
Self-care: Getting contraceptives into the hands of women during COVID-19
Marie Stopes International & FP2020 Ensuring Rights-based FP in the Context of COVID-19
Co-sponsored by FP2020 and CARE |
