European Union/UNFPA
Reproductive Health Initiative
for Youth in Asia (RHIYA)
The EU/UNFPA RHIYA continues the successful collaboration
between the EU, UNFPA, European and local NGOs towards improving
the S&RH of the most vulnerable populations in South and South
East Asia. This new Programme will focus exclusively on improving
the reproductive and sexual health of youth and adolescents (ASRH),
with an emphasis on gender equity. The EU has committed €18.5
million, with UNFPA and partner NGOs each contributing an additional €1.85
million.
Building on the achievements and lessons learned
of the first phase of this major EU-UNFPA collaboration (Reproductive
Health Initiative for Asia - RHI), this 3-year Programme will emphasize
the creation of a supportive environment for addressing ASRH issues
through community participation and ownership, advocacy, government
involvement, and the sharing of knowledge and information. The
major thrust of the Programme will be on achieving behavioural
changes, ARSH counseling and services. The Programme aims to work
through mostly national NGOs and mass-organizations in order to
benefit from the comparative advantage of these organizations in
reaching the most vulnerable grass-root level youth. At the same
time, the Programme will use this opportunity to further building
the capacity of local NGOs to meet the S&RH needs of adolescents
and youth.
Adolescents and youth make up a significant portion
of the populations of South and Southeast Asia. As the age at marriage
rises, a gap is emerging between physical maturity and cultural
expectations of pre-marital abstinence. Estimates show that approximately
50% of the HIV/AIDS infections in these countries are among those
aged 15-24. However, while lifestyles are changing rapidly in the
Programme area, attitudes towards S&RH for youth and adolescents
are not, resulting in a large population with unmet S&RH needs.
The activities of the RHIYA will focus on:
- Increasing awareness and improving SRH knowledge and behaviour
among youth and adolescents;
- Improving access to and utilization of youth-oriented SRH
services;
- Enhancing technical, planning and managerial capacity among
national NGOs and CBOs in the provision of ASRH information and
services;
- Increasing political and community support for ASRH policies
an interventions; and
- Improving understanding of critical adolescent health issues
in specific country contexts.
There is a strong emphasis on developing networks
among the RHIYA partner organizations and on promoting inter-project
and inter-country collaboration, in order to achieve synergies
that may help increase the quality, accelerate and improve the
final Programme results. Knowledge sharing will be key to the RHIYA
in
order to ensure effective and timely access to information on the
technical aspects of ASRH programmes and projects and their management,
and to strengthen South-South cooperation. Another important aspect
of the programme is that each of the projects will develop at an
early stage strategies for sustainability.
More information on the RHIYA can be found at: www.asia-initiative.org
| Programme Countries |
Programme Document |
Country Profile |
About the Country Profiles |
| Bangladesh |
 |  |
profile |
The Country Profiles, accessible on the
left, contain a range of socio-economic, gender, demographic
and health indicators. These indicators reflect the priorities
identified in the five-year review of the Programme of
Action and the perspectives from the other international
conferences of the 1990s that culminated in the Millennium
Summit. Attention is also given todifferences within
countries. Indicators for ICPD and MDGs are identified
by special symbols. For more information, see the Population
and Reproductive Health Country Profiles homepage. |
| Cambodia |
| |
profile |
| Lao PDR |
| |
profile |
| Nepal |
| |
profile |
| Pakistan |
| |
profile |
| Sri Lanka |
| |
profile |
| Viet Nam |
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profile |
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