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FP2030’s Youth Strategy from the North, West, and Central Africa Hub


A student focus group discussion raises awareness on how adolescents and other young people can access reproductive health information and services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Image Credit: Images of Empowerment

FP2030’s North, West, and Central Africa (NWCA) Hub in Abuja, Nigeria, hosted by Population Council Nigeria, aims to spearhead the family planning movement and support widespread change in reproductive health through collaboration and partnership at the national and regional levels.

The hub plays a critical role in fostering evidence-based decision-making and holding government, civil society organizations (CSOs), and donors accountable for their family planning commitments in the region. Headed by Dr. Martin Migombano, the hub has the following program priorities:

  • Advocate for sustainable and predictable family planning financing
  • Support scale-up of High Impact Practices (HIPs), including immediate postpartum family planning
  • Promote youth engagement and leadership; the Hub is equally host to the FP2030 Adolescent and Youth Center of Excellence
  • Advocate for the integration of family planning into primary health care

One of the first things that the hub did was to create a strategy for adolescent and youth engagement.

What is the NWCA Hub’s strategy for adolescent and youth engagement?

The FP2030 Adolescent and Youth Strategy prioritizes innovative service delivery, data-driven strategies, prioritization in policies, championing youth leadership, and sustainable partnerships to deliver for adolescents and youth. This global strategy is operationalized by the NWCA hub to meet the unique adolescent and youth family planning needs in the region.

The 5 strategic pillars of our strategy are:

Showcasing High-Impact Service Delivery Models for Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: FP2030 will identify, disseminate, and advocate for innovative service delivery models tailored to young people’s needs. By building alliances with governments, CSOs, and youth-led organizations, and by sharing HIPs, we aim to enhance service quality and delivery across the globe.

Prioritizing Adolescents and Youth in Country Commitments, Programs, and Policies: We will ensure adolescents and youth receive priority in global, regional, and national family planning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) commitments and programs. By engaging with stakeholders, governments, and youth-led organizations, we intend to advance the family planning agenda at multiple levels, with youth participating in policy development and implementation.

Data-Driven Decision-Making for Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: FP2030 will promote innovative data collection models, analysis, and utilization to inform policies and initiatives. We will also encourage data disaggregation to ensure that age-specific and essential adolescent and youth indicators are considered by all relevant stakeholders.

Championing Youth Leadership in the Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Sector: FP2030 is committed to fostering leadership for young people in advocacy, accountability, and youth-inclusive programming through skills-building initiatives, mentorship programs, and the amplification of grassroots voices.

Building Allies for Adolescents and Youth in Decision-Making Spaces: FP2030 acknowledges that adolescents and youth may not always be present at every decision-making table. However, the commitment to invest in and support their well-being is unwavering. By forging alliances with various stakeholders, including government officials, CSOs, and international bodies, we aim to create youth-focused ambassadors, who prioritize the needs of adolescents and youth even if young people themselves are not physically present in every discussion.

Why did the NWCA Hub create an adolescents and youth strategy?

FP2030 commits to ensuring that adolescents and youth are equipped to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, supported by a dynamic and responsive ecosystem that prioritizes their needs and rights. 

Sub-Saharan African has the highest teenage pregnancy prevalence rate in the world, at 143 per 1,000 girls aged 15–19 years. Teenage pregnancy is a particularly significant issue in the NWCA region. For example: 

In North Africa

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In North Africa, Egypt’s adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women aged 15-19) was reported at 41.49 and Morocco’s at 24.61 in 2024.

In West Africa

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In West Africa, Nigeria has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the region, reported at 96.04 in 2024. Ghana’s was 61.97 in 2024.

In Central Africa

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In Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a high adolescent fertility rate of 104.36 in 2024.

With a 24% unmet need for family planning, more than 100,000 women in West and Central Africa die each year from preventable pregnancy-related causes–more than in any other region of the world. Despite extensive efforts, substantial unmet need for contraception persists among adolescents and youth in the region. 

Recognizing this gap, FP2030 NWCA commits to addressing these needs with a multifaceted approach. The FP2030 Adolescent and Youth Strategy ensures that the voices, needs, and preferences of adolescents and youth are at the forefront of our actions, emphasizing inclusivity, empowerment, and progress.

What does the NWCA Hub hope to achieve through the strategy?

The strategy supports equitable partnership with adolescents and youth in SRH decision-making and holds countries and organizations accountable to adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) needs. Ultimately, the strategy aims to contribute to the delay of first births among adolescents and youth and significantly reduce unwanted pregnancies and unmet need for contraception among adolescents and youth.

How was the strategy created?  

The strategy was developed through deep, intentional, inclusive, and responsive consultations with youth partners, relevant stakeholders, and funders. The processes included:

  • A desk review to identify existing evidence on the markers of best practices of partnerships in the adolescent and youth family planning and SRH space
  • A landscape analysis to map existing youth stakeholders and structures including nontraditional actors for integration, collaboration, and partnership building
  • Key informant interviews with both youth and non-youth partners (including from USAID, the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, youth-led organizations, and FP2030 youth focal points)
  • Co-creation and designing of workshops to develop the overarching goal, objectives, guiding principles, priority areas, and stakeholders/structures of the adolescent and youth strategy with the relevant stakeholders
  • Development, review, and finalization of the strategy document through consultations from all relevant stakeholders
  • Launch and socialization of the adolescent and youth strategy

What innovative AYSRH programming exists in the NWCA Hub?

The NWCA Hub hosts the FP2030 Adolescent and Youth Center of Excellence (AYCoE) with the mandate to champion AYSRH and to connect the global SRH community, including regional hubs, by providing tips, insights, trainings, and research. The center will be a robust virtual platform with state-of-the-art resources and the endowment to connect all AYSRH stakeholders across the world. Through the AYCoE, FP2030 is positioning young people as agents of change via the sharing of robust, evidence-informed, data-backed information, resources, and best practices. The AYCoE offers a strong sense of an AYSRH community, connecting different young people from across the globe.

What are the next steps with the strategy? 

Developing the strategy was a critical step to ensuring FP2030 prioritizes sustainable and meaningful partnerships with adolescents and youth. The NWCA Hub now plans to put the strategy in action, with the following next steps: 

  • Share the strategy with all youth focal points (focused on NWCA but also including other regions) to disseminate within their networks and align with country action plans, policy, and costed implementation plans.  
  • Leverage country engagements to share the strategy with the country focal points, such as the Central Africa Coordination meeting and family planning check-in meetings. 
  • Support specific implementation support in Benin, Ghana, Mali, and elsewhere, which includes technical and financial assistance to specific activities targeted toward country-level strategy implementation.
  • Leverage upcoming convenings and workshops to disseminate the strategy.

In addition, we have outlined the following indicators of success:

  • Increased adolescent and youth family planning country commitments, action plans, guidelines, and policies 
  • Reduced unintended pregnancies
  • Delayed first births
  • Reduced unmet need for family planning among adolescents and youth in the region

The sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and youth must be met to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Improved adolescent and youth health outcomes generate a triple dividend for adolescents today, the adults they will become, and the families they may choose to form. 

Margaret Bolaji

Youth Partnerships Manager , FP2030 North, West and Central Africa Hub

Margaret Bolaji is a passionate and dynamic force shaping the landscape of international development with over a decade work experience in research, project implementation and management with particular interest in adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights. She is the Youth Partnerships Manager at FP2030 North, West and Central Africa Hub, where she leads an Inclusive, Responsive and Sustainable partnership with youth and civil society partners in over 20 countries. Margaret founded Stand With A Girl (SWAG) Initiative; a registered youth led organization dedicated to ensuring that every girl in Nigeria no matter where she is born or found is empowered to fulfill her maximum potential. She has Master’s in Policy and Development Studies from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria and completed a Global Health Leadership Accelerator Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.

Justin Ngong

Officer, Communications, FP2030 North, West, and Central Africa Hub

Justin Ngong is a Communications and development expert with over seven years of working experience in health communications and development. The passion to stir change and actively contribute to the building of resilient society has been a driving force in his endeavors in the areas of HIV/AIDS clinical management, and SRH/FP. Justin, is equally a research fellow in international public policy at the University of Bamenda-Cameroon with a research interest of free primary education policy. He is the officer, communications at the FP2030 North, West, and Central African Hub based in Abuja-Nigeria.