Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Building an Inclusive Future
Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) face disproportionate barriers to education, healthcare and economic opportunity, and carry a higher burden of HIV and gender-based violence. Mulika Tanzania brought together stakeholders for a one-day meeting to chart a path toward an AGYW Forum — a dedicated platform for their advocacy and inclusion.
Participants included youth-led organisations such as AFRIYAN and YUNA, alongside experts from the COMPASS Coalition and DARE for Progress Tanzania. Discussions covered the long-acting injectable CAB-LA as an emerging HIV prevention option, and how PEPFAR- and Global Fund-backed initiatives like DREAMS and TIMIZA MALENGO are already reaching AGYW across multiple regions of Tanzania.
A follow-up session with representatives from DARE, DWWT and Mulika agreed on the shape of the AGYW Forum: a nationwide structure open to individual members aged 15–29, youth leaders aged 18–29, and adolescent boys and young men as programmatic members, organised through the Community Action Group mechanism from village to national level. Its focus spans HIV and SRHR, gender-based violence, mental health, livelihoods, non-communicable diseases and climate change.
The organisation that strives to put young people and the marginalized community at the center of development and decision-making processes.
