The Safeguard Young People programme has been implemented by UNFPA and its regional and national partners since November 2013 in eight Southern African countries. Since then UNFPA successfully achieved a number of results in two Phases. Building on the first six years of the programme, UNFPA with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), has developed Phase III which will run from 2020 to 2022.
The aim of SYP is to empower adolescents and young people aged 10 to 24 years to lead healthy lives and to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, early marriages, gender-based violence and harmful cultural practices. At the same time, SYP promotes nclusiveness, gender equitable norms and protective behaviours.
We map out the results achieved at country and regional level on the knowledge, health and youth empowerment and on building an enabling policy environment. While building on the previous areas of intervention and the results achieved in the previous years, SYP Phase three (2020-2022) will continue to build on UNFPA ESARO’s experience and technical expertise on adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights programming globally, regionally and nationally, as well as on the expertise of the newly established Middle Income Countries’ (MICs) Hub, a team of technical and operational regional staff dedicated to addressing the needs of vulnerable populations in MICs in collaboration with other regional programmes.
