Advocacy

Awareness

To ensure that there is a global awareness among decision-makers and young people about NCD risks and behaviours.

Empowerment

To ensure that young people are advocating on issues relevant to their health and wellbeing, influencing policy and demanding accountability including training young advocates to promote NCD prevention at the local, national and global levels.

Through our YHP partnership, UNICEF launched a Youth Advocacy Guide (YAG). The YAG is a resource to empower and support youth advocates to develop their own advocacy plan.

Action

To ensure young people have participated in increasing the number of countries with NCD prevention strategies targeted at their age group. To date, 29 laws/policies have been positively shaped through YHP's young leaders in partnership with UNICEF.

In South Africa, 1 in 5 young people may face future health risks from food-related illnesses. We’re trying to change that through our Young Health Programme’s partnership with UNICEF.

Our partnership with UNICEF South Africa works with youth advocates to support the government to improve the school food environment for all young people.

In Indonesia, our partnership with UNICEF is helping young people lead longer, healthier lives by empowering them to become champions of non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and advocates for policy change. Together, we have supported the Government to roll out nationwide medical check-ups and lessons on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.

Protocols were developed and health checks piloted that are now reaching 53 million young people, strengthening health awareness, improving wellbeing and enabling informed health decisions for the future.

In parallel, YHP has supported youth advocates to influence stronger tobacco control policies. Youth engagement helped shape regulations that expanded smoke-free areas, strengthened health warning labels and raised the legal age for tobacco purchase to 21. These measures are expected to reduce youth smoking and deliver significant long-term health, economic and environmental benefits.