Advocating for Policy and Legislative Change
CSA has been at the forefront of advocacy e. orts aimed at improving
the health and general well being of adolescents and youth in Kenya.
In the mid nineties, CSA was instrumental in the formation of an
advocacy coalition on adolescent health – Th e Kenya Association for
the Promotion of Adolescent Health (KAPAH). CSA provides technical
assistance to KAPAH, which is also hosted by the Centre.
One of our major achievements in this area has been the introduction
of a re-entry policy for girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy.
CSA led and co-ordinated the advocacy e. orts which resulted in the
introduction of these policy guidelines.
CSA was also instrumental in redirecting the negative debate on
Family Life Education (FLE) by demystifying and publicizing the
contents of the Ministry of Education’s FLE curriculum. Th e Centre’s
e. orts brought the FLE debate to the public domain and raised the
level of understanding on this key issue.
Other key achievements in this area have included:
-
. Reviewing existing Kenyan laws and policies related to adolescent
-
and youth health with a view to influencing changes in both areas
-
. Development of advocacy materials used in lobbying policy
-
makers to support activities aimed at improving the well being of
-
young people.
-
. Lobbying members of Parliament to galvanise support for
-
adolescent health issues
Contributing to the Development of National
Policies
CSA has been involved in the development of the following policies:
-
. Adolescent Health and Development Policy 2003. Th e
-
development of this policy was co-ordinated by CSA together with
-
KAPAH. CSA raised the initial funding required for this activity,
-
conducted research and together with KAPAH wrote the . rst draft
-
for government
-
National policy for Population and Sustainable Development
-
Sessional Paper on AIDS
-
Th e Return to School Policy Guidelines
-
Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Guidelines
|
