Our Projects

About 28% of the Ethiopian population is aged between 15-29. Most youth live in rural areas, have poor access to education, and at best support their families through care work or earn a little extra money from time to time through small jobs. Economically attractive opportunities and access to vocational training are lacking. Further to this, social services that young people need, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, are scarce and are not tailored to the needs of young people. The situation is even more challenging for young women, who have fewer opportunities for a self-determined life due to prevailing gender inequalities and are more prone to sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). Additionally, young people rarely have resources – such as land or capital – to build a future. Various (training and further) education opportunities offered by the project partners address this challenge and enable the young people to have a professional perspective. The offerings of the individual organisations thus create unique synergy effects and holistically improve the livelihood prospects of young people.

Key DSW activities to improve young people’s SRHR

• Knowledge transfer on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) to more than 70.000 young people
• Supporting 50 health centers and health posts in establishing youth-friendly health services in the area of SRHR
• Training for 60 health service providers on comprehensive family planning
• Awareness-raising in the youth’s environment, including mobile clinics offering counseling on modern contraception and family planning.
• Training of 600 female change agents and community promoters to provide education on family planning in communities and households
• Raising awareness of sexual and reproductive health in 24 schools and universities.
• Training of 20 Youth Champions who accompany political decision-making processes at local, regional and national levels
• Implementation of courses in vocational training and innovative business management for 120 youth club members
• Bulid the capacity of 346 health service providers on the provision of youth-friendly SRHR services, comprehensive family planning, STI management and screening for cervical cancer, screening and diagnosis of fistula
• Build the capacity of 208 youth club members on club leadership & management, and entrepreneurship and business skills

Key activities of the partners

• Improving the economic situation of young people through employment in agricultural value chains (HRNS Ethiopia)
• Qualification of young people and other stakeholders from different value chains through market-oriented higher education, vocational training and consulting in the areas of logistics, transport and supply chain management (EMF)

DSW in a consortium led by MSI Reproductive Choices, along with six other national partners,  Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) Kenya, Health Alert Sierra Leone (HASiL), Youth Advocates Ghana (YAG), Sikika, Restless Development Zambia and Youth Network for Sustainable Development (YNSD) Ethiopia are implementing the Y4H project. Each partner brings a wealth of experience working with, and for, adolescents, including in youth-friendly services; youth-led accountability and participation in governance; youth leadership, especially of young women; youth mobilisation; and community engagement; as well as long-standing media and communication experience.

DSW’s role in the project is to improve the political environment and mobilise resources in the countries at local, national and regional levels, while working on the ground in two subdistricts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Other project partners are focused on increasing demand for high-quality SRHR information and ensuring a strong public health sector is able to deliver ASRHR services. In these six subdistricts, DSW-trained youth champions are working to ensure that their demands for improved national ASRHR services are heard. The production and analysis of annual budget studies and community scorecards will be important tools the youth champions will use in their advocacy to call for increased funding for ASRHR in their communities.

Key Activities

• Annual analysis of public budgets in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia in terms of planning and spending on ASRHR and family planning.
• Collection of data on the availability of youth-friendly ASRHR services and modern contraceptives in the communities.
• Providing expertise on ASRHR through participation in working groups and consultations at the local, regional and national levels.
• Training of 30 youth champions per country on family planning, ASRHR and gender-based violence.
• Online and in-person interaction with local community members on ASRHR and gender-based violence issues through campaigns each year.
• Engage with the African Union (AU) and East African Community (EAC) by participating at civil society organisation consultation meetings and disseminating ASRHR advocacy priorities

The project aims to reach 36,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 from the Busia, Kampala, Kamuli, Mukono, Tororo and Wakiso districts. Many of them want more information about SRHR, including contraception. At school, these topics are only dealt with superficially, if at all. At health centres, young people often feel uncomfortable if they are unmarried and ask about contraception. On the one hand, because they are then often stigmatised and on the other hand, because their privacy is not sufficiently protected. Youth clubs, which are organised independently by young people, provide a solution. Here, young people receive information about SRHR and can take part in various training sessions. The youth clubs in a region are organised in youth empowerment centres. These in turn help members of different clubs to network with each other and become politically active. The structure is concentrated in a national youth secretariat. In this way, young people not only learn to advocate for their concerns at different administrative levels, they also build a self-governing and sustainable network to advocate together for their goals. The project is implemented by Action 4 Health Uganda, DSW’s Ugandan partner organisation.

Key activities

• Establishment of a national youth network
• Training of 20 health workers in order to make sexual and reproductive health services youth-friendly.
• Training of 90 trainers, who in turn will train 1,500 peer educators in SRHR, youth club management, and economic empowerment.
• Conducting 120 community dialogue forums with youth leaders and stakeholders.

Poor infrastructure in the rural areas of Uganda often goes hand in hand with inadequate medical care. In addition, the population, half of whom are under 15 years old, lacks knowledge about family planning and SRHR. During its visits to remote regions, the Youth Truck team focuses on entertaining learning (edutainment). Through games and sports, its staff members successfully convey knowledge on these important topics to young people and initiate discussions about sexualised violence and conflict resolution. The team also teaches general life skills for youth and supports the local health department in carrying out HIV tests, vaccinations and other health services. Wertgarantie AG provided the financial means for the purchase of a new Youth Truck and has since supported the services with an annual donation. 

Key activities

• Providing remote communities with health services and knowledge about SRHR
• Supporting the local health system in providing medical care to remote communities

Contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, but also gender-based and sexualised violence are among the topics that concern young people. On the flower farms, DSW organises discussion groups where especially young women exchange their views. DSW also offers training for young people who want to become politically active.

For the referral of the flower workers, but also other young people, age-appropriate counseling centres are also set up in the nearby local health centres.

Key activities

• Organisation and implementation of youth dialogues in the flower farms
• Conducting trainings on gender roles and life skills
• Conducting workshops on national and regional legal frameworks
• Legal frameworks to ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights in the workplace
• Creating and distributing newsletters, posters and brochures and using social media in the factories
• Setting up youth-friendly counseling centres in local health facilities
• Training youth activists
• Hold biannual panel discussions on gender roles and gender-based violence.