KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY MAVIS NAA KORLEY ARYEE AT #NAIROBISUMMIT (#ICPD25)

“How do I begin to talk about 25 years when I am younger than that? Thankfully, here I am as an active leader of ICPD actions, to make things happen for others in our unfinished business.

Looking back, I have grown in a society where girls like me will not have this platform to articulate all they have been through because their progress was truncated too soon. They did not own their bodies and were forced into situations that do not take their lives and individual abilities to decide into consideration. Many have become teen mothers and child brides. Their sexual and reproductive health rights meant nothing to others.

We have come far and the active youth engagement you will see during this session shows it. Yet, there is still so much to do. I have tried to skip all the statistics because they sometimes sound like mathematics and not about real human lives, yet we know lives are at stake if we fail to act rightly and promptly. As the challenges evolve our responses should in a similar vein evolve to meet the exigencies of our present situation. Sexual and reproductive health and rights is at the centre of the needed action. We cannot forget that population is so much related to development so issues of climate change, our ecosystem, agriculture and even the blue economy are all intertwined.

Diversity of people’s lived experiences and challenges should dictate we have diversity of solutions if we want to push development to the logical conclusions. We are youth with knowledge that the little things we do in our community corners should contribute to our aspirations towards a world that meets the Sustainable Development Goals. Paying keen attention to the ICPD goals is a realistic way of supporting our lives and changing the world for all the vulnerable whose voices might not be heard here to benefit.

I was encouraged about the way we showed through the various national and regional sessions on the road to Nairobi, how the youth are prepared to be part of the development agenda. Yes, we are here to provide 1.8 billion reasons why no youth should be left out. The ICPD and the SDGs are about us. We have the numbers that call for the right attention. Yes, the numbers that well-handled and supported and not in any way discriminated against because of our age, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation, or other defining characteristic will prove to be the world’s greatest resource. No one will like to ignore 1,8 billion strong and committed reasons for progress.

When we meet, we do not see a difference but a common cause to move the world forward. We are in diverse ways bringing leadership to bear on the needed steps with our engagements. The more we collaborate, the more we advance. We believe the world has adequate resources to make this progress possible. It is all about moving just from talk to the relevant action.

Yes, we acknowledge the challenges but the opportunities are immense. This summit should help us to recommit to tackle the identified structural challenges to meeting the SRHR needs of our 1.8 billion strong development agents. Inclusion in implementation is key to achieving results and creating the world we want. We believe that belonging to a minority group should not make you a subject for discrimination.

We stand on the crest of a wave – whether we sink or sail, will depend on the commitments we make and more importantly, how we back all commitments with the necessary action and needed resources. That 12-year old girl living in a refugee camp who is a survivor of gender-based violence, that lady caught in fistula through no fault of hers, that young woman living with a disability whose SRHR needs are consistently ignored and yes, that boy, and men who need information to be there as part of the support structure and minority groups that face different forms of discrimination should all be reached.

Our young people who are doing well should be the pull for us to do more and not the drug to make us smug. Yes, we cannot and should never toy with that significant process of empowerment. It comes in several forms and may be as simple as telling younger adolescents that the opportunities for them are limitless, go for them.

We may act from the top but never let us forget that progress at the community level, where the young people coming after us will feel the positive impact of our gathering here. Many potential beneficiaries will never know about ICPD but the ICPD effect should transform their lives positively.

In aiming for the world we want, young people have and will continue to be leaders in the current decisions that are made for them especially at the grass-root levels, this will build their sense of responsibility and ownership of the process. After all, this is our bodies, our lives, and our world.

Reproductive health information and services should be easily accessible to all young people to avert the consequences society bears from the uninformed and unhelpful decisions and choices made by young people. After all, this is our bodies, our lives, and our world.

Let us rise and be counted. You count, I count and all who deserve action now count. We cannot fail the generation and we are not going to fail. And now I have the pleasure to introduce you to Martin, Helene, Ahmet, and Ruth, four young leaders who will give powerful testimonies on their efforts to realize the ICPD.”