They also called on governments in Africa to work tirelessly to ensure the full implementation of the African Union’s 2017 road map on “Harnessing the demographic dividend through investments in youth”.

The First Ladies made the call in a communique issued last Tuesday at the end of the 19th General Assembly of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA).

The meeting also marked 15 years of OAFLA.

In the communique, the First Ladies acknowledged that the continent’s greatest wealth lay in its young people and, therefore, pledged to work in close collaboration with partners to secure financial and technical support to implement programmes targeting Africa adolescents.

Commitment

They also committed to advocating policies and programmes that would help improve the life expectancy of children, including immunisation and nutrition.

Bearing in mind that youth access to health services was essential to reducing their vulnerability and ensuring improvement in productivity, the First Ladies also committed to influencing governments’ decisions to seek strategic means to invest in the health of the youth and prioritise national investments to facilitate youth access to health services.

They further committed to impressing on state actors to ensure youth-friendly services and information particularly related to their sexual and reproductive health.

At the end of the General Assembly, the OAFLA Secretariat launched the sixth edition of the organisation’s annual publication which was entitled, “Adolescents and Youth-Friendly Health Services - Harnessing the Demographic Dividend Through Investment in Youth.”