Amua Accelerator Challenge definition & validation day-Recap

Conference Summary

This captures a day programme of presentations, group discussion and interactive dialogue at the conference leading the way in Innovation Accelerator (iAccelerator) development, which took place 24 February 2017 in Dar es Salaam, at Buni Hub — COSTECH.

The event brought together 20 people including key government officials, national and international health stakeholders, from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), youth-led organizations and UNFPA Tanzania to review challenges of sexual reproductive health (SRH) in Tanzania. It provided the overview of SRH and youth in Tanzania for further addressing the need to tackle this issue that much worse affects the community.

The conference began with opening remarks by the representatives of UNFPA Tanzania, Sahara Sparks, and the Government of Tanzania (Prime Minister’s Office — Youth, Labour, Employment and the Disabled), and continued with a report presentation of the Ministry of Health and UNFPA iAccelerator overview, then interactive group discussions, presentations and briefings on sexual reproductive health status in Tanzania. It concluded with a set of presentations in three groups delivering the first draft of challenge statements and questions, specifically addressing the issues of sexual reproductive health mostly affecting young people.

Session 1: Welcome and opening statements

Opening the conference, Mr. Godfrey Massawe, Youth Officer for Prime Minister’s Office — Youth, Labour, Employment, and the Disabled, highlighted the termination of the government working very close with stakeholders to further support young people to be more productive in the economy of the country. Tanzania’s youth being 60 percent of the total population noted as a big and mostly young people being in the informal sector contributing for the economy.

Session 2: Presentation from the Ministry of Health

Mr. Gerald Kihwele, Representative for Ministry of Health, made a presentation in which he noted the overview of sexual reproductive health (SRH) programs, on-hand policy and laws in Tanzania. He described the status of SRH in Tanzania with analytical data, exploring the density of the problem, detailing the increase of teenage pregnancy,

Session 3: Presentation on UNPFA Innovation Accelerator

Mrs. Felister gave a short history about UNFPA Tanzania importantly noted that it started operating since 1975 and further the engagement with technology began in 2015 due to the increasing global investment in fiber and wireless infrastructure. And technology kits like mobile phones, multipurpose projectors were successfully used for health campaigns. e.g. E-Health.

Mr. Adam Mbyallu, Project Manager for UNFPA iAccelerator, described the nature of the project, its objective and clearly went through the timeline for the stakeholders to comprehend the programs included throughout the project.

Session 4: Plenary Discussions

Mrs. Prudence Masako, a Representative for PSI Tanzania presented her concerns over the presented report about the age group 15–24 being too broad as it would not provide a true picture of the youth adolescents’ issues.

KIHOWEDE Director, Mrs. Justa asked why it was reported that youth centres have had little impact solving Sexual Reproductive Health challenges in Tanzania.

Mrs. Tausi Hassan, UNFPA Youth Officer, responded with her inputs that the data presented was a result of numerous researches, but a smaller group distribution could be found. She also highlighted that nearly all of the youth centres in Tanzania are donor or program funded as her observation that time-to-time they become operational and active when funded.

Mrs. Felister Bwana, Programme Specialist Health Systems at UNFPA, also added there have been studies reflected the need for youth centers resource management.

Session 5: Group Presentations

Mr. Adam provided guidelines for discussion to come up with best themes and challenges related to youth SRH, then formulated three groups of which each came up with 3 thematic topics. As to their interactive debate and they eventually presented the following:

GROUP 1 (THEMES)

• Engaging and involving young people to define their future.
• Enhancing efforts for youth engagement in SRH Programming.
• Create an enabling environment for active SRH services to young people.

(CHALLENGES)

1. How to utilize/disseminate SRH Policy/Guidelines?
2. How to improve /strength existing SRH youth program and interventions to reach on a wider youth population?
3. How to mainstream SRH interventions into existing government structures at region and district levels?

GROUP 2 (THEMES)

• Increase access to youth friendly SRH Services.
• Expanding access to Adolescent and youth SRH information and Education.
• Address social, Cultural Issues that affects access Adolescent Youths Sexual Reproductive Health (AYSRH).

(CHALLENGES)

1. Which approach to be used for effective youth engagement in SRH programming?
2. Which mechanism can be used to sensitive and mobilize youth to engage effectively in SRH programming?
3. How to formulate monitoring evaluation and existing strategy?

GROUP 3 (THEMES)

• To create supportive and enabling environment to access comprehensive sexuality education for young people.

(CHALLENGES)

1. How might improve the channel or source of SRH information to youth?
2. How we might we link up the social Institutions to transfer accurate information to youth?
3. How might we bridge the g the gap between parent and children especially on sexuality?

Session 6: Closing Remarks

Mr. Adam Mbyallu conveyed his gratitude to all participants, particularly the presenters in his capacity as conference facilitator. He extended his thanks to the UNFPA Tanzania for starting the project in Tanzania and urged the few to join the team to refine the challenge statements and questions at UNFPA Country Office on the coming Monday.