Empowering Youth to Lead Listening Sessions on Principles of Meaningful Youth Engagement in Health Programming

The Youth Engagement Network (YEN) worked with young people to create a framework for youth engagement (YE) in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programming. Over a year-long period, more than 100 young people contributed to developing a unified, youth-informed approach emphasizing youth-adult partnerships in co-creation, evaluation, and leadership. Using Group Concept Mapping (GCM), YEN defined five key principles for engaging youth in SRH programming: Format and Materials, Sexual Health Content, Youth Centeredness, Program Facilitators, and Environment and Space. To refine these principles, YEN partnered with four youth facilitators who led 10 virtual listening sessions with 53 participants. The sessions focused on young people’s feedback to shape the YE principles. Several lessons emerged for youth-centered data collection: engaging youth in development fosters ownership, offering flexible roles promotes agency, and adjusting to youth schedules ensures consistent participation. Paying youth for their time and encouraging authentic participation were also key to meaningful involvement.