Voices of the marginalised amplified

Young Mothers Support Network Advocacy Agenda for 2022-25 draft will promote the inclusion of adolescent girls and young women, especially young mothers in positions of leadership and decision making.

The Agenda for 2022-25 was launched by Inspired Horizons Association, a nongovernmental organisation established to advance the needs and priorities of various minorities and vulnerable groups in Botswana. Founding Director of the Association, Kaene Disepo told The Midweek Sun that they hope to achieve and promote access to complete and comprehensive sexual reproductive health and rights through youth-friendly, non-judgmental and accessible HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. Their aim is to amplify the voices of adolescent girls and women, at local, national, and international levels. Research from the organisation shows that Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) are often excluded from the social and health interventions that are delivered through conventional policies. They also do not have access to accurate information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and inherently lack knowledge or access to HIV/AIDS prevention or treatment services. “Through our flagship programme, the Young Mothers Support

Network, we have managed to identify several young mothers in Botswana and build on improving understanding of advocacy work on national processes for better engagement in advocacy which influences policy, legal reform, and the design and implementation of programmes. “This continues to be done through our regular target audience-specific dialogues and workshops where we invite actual policy-designersand-influencers,” Disepo said. Using the Advocacy Agenda, Inspired Horizons Association and their Young Mothers Support Network, is creating a platform to highlight key challenges of social exclusion, social segregation, and marginalisation. He said it is evident in Botswana as well as other African countries that AGYW suffers from economic challenges, social segregation, social exclusion, societal oppression, and exposure to Gender-Based Violence, STI infection, and teenage pregnancies.

They are usually not included in designing and implementation of policies hence leading to lower numbers of adolescents girls and young women in nation-building projects and anything related to the general growth of a nation. Advocacy Agenda 20222025 is a comprehensive call to action that invites respective stakeholders to partner and work towards increasing the advocacy of AGYW and to integrate them into decision-making spaces where they can be more influential.