The YIELD Hub: Advancing Youth Partnership in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

In 2017, the Youth Investment, Engagement, and Leadership Development (YIELD) Project began as a learning review to assess the impact of YIELD efforts on Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (AYSRHR) and to inform future action. YIELD’s initial five-year phase was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and The Summit Foundation.

The YIELD Hub, hosted by Rutgers, a Netherlands-based global organization with a long commitment to AYSRHR, was launched in July 2022 to bring to life the learning from the earlier research and stakeholder engagement phase which showed that youth partnership in AYSRHR has been held back by a lack of opportunity for cross-stakeholder sharing, learning, and coordinated action.

The Hub’s vision is a world in which youth partnership is the norm within the AYSRHR field, and its mission is to improve youth partnership in the AYSRHR space. The Hub uses collective action learning, and a collaborative problem-solving process to generate new and creative solutions for improving youth participation in AYSRHR.

In 2022, the YIELD Hub’s staff launched its first collective action learning group, with three more planned for 2023 covering topics including compensating youth work, capacity development for youth transition, and finding, engaging, and sustaining new generations of youth leaders. In April 2023, the YIELD Hub launched a new Youth Partnership podcast. The first episode focused on amplifying youth partnership to end violence against women and girls.

Resources:

Youth Partnership Podcast – YIELD Hub

YIELD Project Research Report: Young People Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health: Toward a New Normal

Issue Paper on Gender: When the Gap Is a Chasm: The Gendered Experience of Youth Participation and Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health

Partner Link:

Rutgers