Enhancing social accountability through adolescent and youth leadership: a case study on sexual and reproductive health from Gujarat, India

Overview

This paper describes a collaborative project on building citizenship among adolescents and young people in Gujarat, western India, and describes lessons learned from its approaches and strategies. The conceptual framework on which our work relies includes gender, intersectionality, rights, inclusion, and social accountability. In addition to rural, tribal, Dalit, and urban poor young people, the project engages with adolescents and young people living with disabilities and young people from sexual minorities groups. The implementing partners are four community-based NGOs and two collectives: of women living with disabilities and transpersons. The strategies include building a common understanding of the conceptual framework of the project partners’ teams, capacity building of peer leaders to mobilise young people in their villages, creating local support systems for adolescents and young people, and engaging with public systems that deliver health and nutrition programmes for adolescents and young people. The paper provides valuable lessons that can contribute to programming and research for adolescents and young people in the context of the ‘leave no one behind’ maxim of the Sustainable Development Goals.