By Innocent Grant, ICFP Secretariat Member and Youth Subcommittee Co-Chair
Historically, the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) hosts the youth pre-conference as a space where young leaders come together to openly engage on the issues they care about most. These gatherings are more than just meetings; they are platforms for knowledge exchange, value clarification on sensitive topics, and cultural exchange. ICFP has always placed strong value on creating spaces where networking and cross-cultural learning can thrive.
How the 2025 Youth Summit was Different
In 2025 this mission was stronger than ever. The youth pre-conference was rebranded as the Youth Summit, a change that may seem simple, but symbolizes something much more intentional. The name change reflects a more vibrant and distinct space where education, knowledge sharing, and cultural exchange come together in a more integrated way.
The Summit was coordinated by the ICFP Youth Co-Chairs with a clear goal: to demonstrate what the practice of ideation looks like with meaningful intergenerational partnership.
The Summit was not designed by youth alone. It brought together both young leaders and non-youth allies, working side by side to co-create an intergenerational experience. The vision was to build a dynamic space where ideas and solutions are generated collectively. On Day One, the Global Roadmap of Action (GRA) for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (AYSRHR) leadership facilitated breakout sessions that served as ideation platforms and on Day Two, ICFP 2025 Youth Trailblazers led breakout sessions. Plenary sessions featured both young leaders and senior leaders from global organizations and the UN, creating a powerful space for dialogue across generations.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank the partners who supported the Youth Summit. There is no doubt that gatherings like these are deeply needed—spaces where young voices are not only heard, but centered.
The Top Ten Ideas
In the weeks following the Summit, we collected and reviewed summaries of the conversations, with the aim of identifying the most prominent ideas that emerged. One message stood out clearly: the need to meaningfully involve young people in all decision-making spaces and to ensure they are adequately funded to drive innovation. We also saw the powerful role of Arts for Advocacy (Arts4Advocacy), particularly music and illustrations, as a tool for engagement and change.
Below is a summary of the top ten ideas that young participants and non-youth allies are pushing forward. Click on the plus (+) signs to the right of each idea to read more.
1. Center Indigenous Knowledge & Lived Realities in SRHR and Climate Action
Youth emphasized that climate and SRHR solutions must integrate indigenous knowledge systems, uplift stateless and displaced communities, and avoid extractive research practices. Indigenous youth should have platforms to lead advocacy, design interventions, and influence policy.
2. Integrate GBV & Rights-Based Indicators Across All SRHR Programming
Youth called for SRHR programs to include GBV metrics, disability-inclusive measures, and gender action plans, especially in crisis and climate-affected regions. Strengthening rights-based monitoring systems was highlighted as essential for equity and accountability.
3. Use Empathy, Storytelling & Photo-Voicing as Key Evidence and Advocacy Tools
Reports reinforced that stories are data. Storytelling, testimonials, digital narratives, and photo-voice methodologies help humanize SRHR issues and drive emotional engagement. Youth see empathy not as a soft skill but as a core requirement for program design and policy influence.
4. Invest in Youth Entrepreneurs & Provide Flexible, Long-Term Funding
Across sessions, youth urged investment in youth-led organizations,innovators and community-based entrepreneurs. They stressed the need for accessible, multi-year core funding and support for existing youth networks that already hold community trust and reach. Young leaders also emphasized that funders should identify youth that are already engaged in entrepreneurial activities related to SRHR, invest in their work, and forge partnerships with them. Community-led crowd-sourcing mechanisms were identified as a particularly promising target for amplification.
5. Build Intergenerational Partnerships with Shared Power & Accountability
Youth envision partnership models where decision-making is co-owned by young people and older adults. Genuine intergenerational collaboration, not just symbolic involvement, is necessary for meaningful inclusion, system reform, and shared advocacy outcomes. Youth highlighted some best practice models such as the IBP Network, The Advocacy and Accountability Collaborative (TAAC), and the FP2030 LAC Hub’s “youth wave” as platforms that are already practicing meaningful intergenerational partnership.
6. Strengthen Digital Literacy & Safe Digital Platforms for SRHR Learning
From evidence collection to community education, digital tools are essential. Youth highlighted the need for digital literacy training, cyber-safety protocols, and mobile-friendly tools that reach underserved groups while minimizing misinformation and digital exclusion.
7. Enforce Cross-Sector Partnerships Linking Climate, Health, Education, Faith, & private sector innovators
Youth stressed that SRHR does not exist in isolation. They called for holistic, multisectoral partnerships connecting climate adaptation, GBV prevention, disability inclusion, faith communities and private sector innovators to address real-world complexities.
8. Develop Youth-Led Pathways to Translate Evidence into Action leveraging partnerships with faith-based communities and artists
Youth emphasized the need for practical, culturally relevant mechanisms that turn evidence into program and policy change. There was an overall emphasis in strengthening non-traditional partnerships such as partnerships between young leaders and faith based communities and partnerships between researchers, program managers or SRHR policymakers, and artists.
9. Self-care must be scaled and integrated as a core, youth-led approach across HIV and family planning—not treated as a side intervention
The emphasis is that self-care is not just a set of tools, but a rights-based, youth-centered model that strengthens autonomy, confidentiality, and access across HIV prevention and treatment, and family planning. Participants called for integrated service delivery models that combine community-based, facility-based, and digital approaches (including offline digital tools and chatbots), and for embedding self-care into official government policies and health systems. Central to this idea is the recognition that youth, especially those facing stigma, disability, poverty, or marginalization, must be designers, leaders, and implementers, not passive recipients of services.
10. Active and early engagement of youth-led organizations in fragile and humanitarian contexts is essential
These organizations are already working in SRHR spaces, yet they remain under-recognized and under-supported. There is a need to intentionally identify and strengthen their capacity so they are equipped with the knowledge and tools required in emergency settings, including understanding and delivering Minimum Initial Service Packages (MISP) for populations at risk.
This approach also recognizes the critical role youth-led organizations can play in shaping community-based emergency health systems. By supporting them to lead and innovate—whether through early warning mechanisms, localized response models, or community-driven solutions—they can contribute to more responsive, inclusive systems and help reduce poor SRHR outcomes in humanitarian settings.
So the question now is: how do we move these ideas forward—together?
Members of the Youth Subcommittee, alongside other leaders, are eager to collaborate with partners and stakeholders to turn these ideas into reality. While some of these ideas may not be entirely new, the Youth Summit has amplified them, grounding them in real experiences from communities, where young people have already tested and seen promising outcomes.
We encourage all those involved in the planning and organization of SRHR and other global health convenings to reflect on these ten ideas and how to integrate some of these same strategies and approaches of the ICFP Youth Summit.
