WHO Meeting on youth-friendly health policies and services - IPPF EN takes advocacy work forward on inclusion of SRHR in policies for young people in Europe.
In line with its previous advocacy work with the European Commission and the European Youth Forum (EYF), IPPF EN took part in the World Health Organization's (WHO) meeting on youth-friendly health policies and services in Edinburgh, Scotland from 21 to 23 September.
IPPF EN Advocacy Officer, Irene Donadio and Youth focal point, Ada Dortch attended the meeting accompanied by Executive Directors of 8 IPPF Member Associations and 3 members of IPPF EN’s youth network (YSAFE). Participants also included representatives from ministries of health of Member States in the WHO European Region, UN agencies and organizations working on youth-friendly health policies and services.
The aim of the meeting was to create a forum for experience sharing and to help move forward government agenda on responding to the health needs of young people. The meeting focused on: legal, policy and regulatory interventions, strengthening health care delivery, and an emphasis on effectiveness and quality.
IPPF EN was involved in the preparation of the meeting and contributed to the WHO Entre Nous publication, with articles from IPPF EN Regional Office on the SAFE project as well as an article from the Danish YSAFE member. Members of YSAFE were also involved in the design of a survey on youth- friendly services which fed into the Edinburgh meeting and presented their experiences on youth-friendly services and SRHR during a plenary session.
In addition, IPPF EN presented the 'SAFE policy guide' and 'Provide: strengthening youth friendly services' publication:
Launched in October 2007, the "SAFE Policy Guide" – A Guide for Developing Policies on SRHR of Young People was financially supported by the EC DG for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO) as part of ‘The SAFE Project: A European partnership to promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people’. The project was a partnership between IPPF European Network, WHO Regional Office for Europe, and Lund University.
Launched during IPPF EN's final SAFE conference in Brussels in October 2007, the policy guide provides a series of broad recommendations intended to guide policymakers and programmers in creating a more youth-friendly SRHR policy environment for young people.
Provide: Strengthening youth-friendly services
is a self assessment guide to increase young people’s access to a broad range of youth-friendly services. This IPPF tool takes a rights based approach to service delivery; based on a comprehensive understanding of what young people want, rather than on what providers believe they need.
For more information on the Edinburgh meeting, contact Ada Dortch at