9^th International Dialogue

Background

This year’s International Dialogue will be part of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Initiative on Voluntary Family Planning. It will discuss good practices, national standards and curricula, new developments and joint activities in the fields of general basic and sexuality education.

Half of the world’s population is under the age of 25. This includes the largest-ever generation of adolescents who are, or will be soon, of reproductive age, ready to become sexually active or to establish their own families. At the same time, millions of young people are faced with the prospects of early marriage and early childbearing, incomplete education, and the threat of HIV/AIDS. Teaching young people how to stay healthy is one of the best investments that can be made, also for future generations. Young people themselves need to become key actors in their own development, and their voices have to be brought up to a higher political level. Therefore, education and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are closely interlinked.

Objectives

The 9^th International Dialogue will:

1. provide a forum to present and discuss strategies and good practices to promote the link between education, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and population dynamics;
2. inform and influence the development cooperation portfolio of the organising partners with regard to linking SRHR and education in selected partner countries to be addressed at the conference;
3. address current and potentially controversial issues around the link between education and SRHR, including e.g. comprehensive sexuality education, and sexuality education for younger age groups, or cultural and religious barriers;
4. define joint ways ahead to further promote the link between education and SRHR within donors, Civil Society Organisations (CSO), private sector and partner governments, development cooperation programmes, as well as within various international development cooperation fora (including the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action  and the Post-Millennium Development Goal architecture);
5. find ways in which the link between SRHR and education can be better implemented and coordinated among stakeholders at national level (for example between ministries for health and education);
6. build new partnerships and discuss common standards for sexuality education, the use of new technologies or the education of women and girls.

Participants

This year’s International Dialogue will focus again on the expert level, with a limited number of participants from civil society organisations, the private sector, and partner governments. In addition, there will be practitioners such as teachers, school representatives responsible for curricula, peer educators from youth clubs, and out-of-school social workers; a limited number of representatives of scientific institutions contributing to the results of relevant studies; a limited number of journalists representing strategically important media; legal experts from partner countries to discuss framework conditions on controversial issues; and young people from partner countries.