Youth Advocacy Network - (YAN)

Youth Advocacy Network (YAN) was formed by a group of youth volunteers across Pakistan in January 2005 at the end of a training workshop organized by World Population Foundation (WPF) Pakistan -in collaboration with the Dutch youth group CHOICE. YAN’s main purpose is to advocate for the inclusion of policies related to SRHR of young people at all levels. YAN also imparts advocacy skills to young people of Pakistan and raises awareness amongst the youth and multi stakeholders to advocate for their rights.

Goal
Work towards creating an enabling environment where young people can exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Objective
To sensitize and train youth volunteers to lobby and advocate for ASRH issues with government.

YAN working mechanism
YAN believes that youth participation is essential at every level of programme development from conceptualization to monitoring and evaluation. YAN is actively working at the National level with its secretariat based in Islamabad and chapter in the four provinces of Pakistan with membership from district. YAN chapters have minimum of 12 (6 Males and 6 Females) active members with focal and co-focal points and treasurer, activities at the national/province/district level are designed, and implemented by YAN members of that respective chapter in consultation with the board members 

Structure of YAN
YAN has an active board and all the board members including Chairperson, General Secretary and Finance Secretary are below the age of 29. All the focal and co-focal points at the district level chapters are a part of the Provincial Management Committee (PMC), PMC members elect provincial focal and co-focal points (gender balanced), and focal and co-focal points of all the four ‘s then become part of the board. All the focal points, Co-Focal Points and board members are elected representatives.

YAN recruitments (Volunteer memberships)
Pakistan is a very diverse country and young people from different provinces and regions have different SRH needs and issues. YAN advertises for its memberships on yearly basis, after careful consideration applicants are offered memberships and new members are recruited. Once the members join YAN, the YAN secretariat conducts orientation sessions in all the YAN districts. Later YAN secretariat works on their capacity building and awareness raising on SRHR, so that these members can advocate for their rights and raise their concerns.

YAN members’ role in its activities
Young people in Pakistan are the most vulnerable group to issues of SRH, such as, STIs, HIV&AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion and sexual violence. Therefore there is a strong need to address young people’s sexual and reproductive health from a preventive, non-judgemental, rights-based, gender-responsive and empowering approach. YAN members work with young people and impart advocacy skills to them, so that they can advocate for their rights and make their voices heard.