On 22-23 February, IPPF EN held an initial planning workshop with the 4 IPPF member associations involved in the "Policy" component of the project "Sexual Awareness for Europe II project", referred to as SAFE II. During the workshop, the IPPF member associations from Ireland, Cyprus, Slovakia and Portugal strategized on the specific advocacy areas that they will focus on in their respective countries to increase the adoption and implementation of sound, rights-based policies to protect, promote and ensure the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of young people.

On 17-19 March, IPPF EN held another workshop for the 4 IPPF member associations involved in the "Good Practice" component of SAFE II. This workshop was organized with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and IPPF Central Office to improve the uptake of good practices aiming to improve the SRHR of young people. The workshop offered IPPF member associations of Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Poland the opportunity to develop areas of focus for replicating good practices in their respective countries.

The SAFE II project - which is jointly funded by the European Commission, the IPPF EN regional office, and participating member associations - sets out to provide an overall picture of the patterns and trends across the region in order to develop new and innovative ways to reach young people with SRHR information and services, and to inform, support and advance policy development. The project aims to improve the sexual health and rights of young people in Europe on national and regional levels and also has a strong, mainstreamed component on youth participation.

The SAFE II builds on the momentum and achievements of a previous EC-funded SAFE project also implemented by IPPF EN in collaboration with WHO Regional Office for Europe and Lund University (Sweden). The initial SAFE project (2005-2007) revealed the enormous variation of availability and quality of sexuality education across Europe. The SAFE project also highlighted the lack of sufficient or comparable data on young people's sexual health behavior. "Guide for Developing Policies on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young People in Europe" was one of the deliverables of the project.