Rethinking young people's services: what works?

Health Inc is an initiative designed to introduce the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to young people and urban communities by linking health discussions with broader development contexts. Since its inception in 2023, Health Inc has explored diverse themes such as food policy, mental health, urban mobility, and climate resilience. Each session is designed to be accessible and engaging, ranging from talk shows and case study workshops to film screenings and networking sessions-making complex policy ideas more relatable to the public. Applying principles of SBCC, Health Inc uses participatory storytelling and dialogue to shift mindsets-encouraging young people to see health not as a sectoral issue, but as a shared social responsibility.
A core feature of Health Inc is its emphasis on multi-sectoral collaboration. The initiative engages community-based organizations, private actors, and government stakeholders to facilitate inclusive knowledge exchange and policy dialogue grounded in real-world experience. Through collaborations with 66 community and media partners, Health Inc becomes a collaborative space that showcases community-led innovation and advocacy for health equity.
To date, Health Inc has engaged hundreds of participants-primarily aged 18–24-from diverse professional and community backgrounds. Participant evaluations consistently show strong enthusiasm and meaningful engagement, with an average satisfaction score of 9.4/10 and a Net Promoter Score of 75.24%. Beyond knowledge-sharing, Health Inc cultivates empathy and collective ownership, evolving into a community-driven movement advancing reflection, collaboration, and joint action toward urban health equity.

Young people in fragile and conflict-affected settings face multiple barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including stigma, discrimination, and service denial based on age, marital status, or disability. The WISH 2 project, led by the International Planned Parenthood Federation through its member association, Family Guidance Association in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, introduced Empathways, an interactive tool designed to strengthen connection, build empathy and mutual understanding between providers and young clients. Through guided reflection and dynamic card-based activities, youth and providers collaboratively examine personal values, biases, and social and gender norms shaping their interactions.
Qualitative findings indicate that Empathways enhanced providers' awareness of how biases and norms influence service quality, leading to stronger commitments to create safe, confidential, and youth-friendly spaces, including for young people with disabilities. The Regional Health Bureaus of the project implementation regions, Amhara, Tigray and Afar, supported adaptation and integration of Empathways into existing training programs, to ensure sustainability and local ownership. Key factors contributing to effective implementation include a participatory design process that foster local stakeholder ownership, active collaboration and engagement of youth and service providers, and flexible language and cultural adaptations that enhance relevance and acceptance. These elements demonstrate how relational, empathy-based approaches can transform provider behavior while strengthening access, quality, and trust in SRH services for youth and marginalized populations in conflict-affected settings. 

Adolescents and youth in Nampula, Mozambique, particularly girls, face stigma, judgment, and poor treatment when seeking sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. This is often due to provider bias rooted in personal attitudes and systemic social norms. To address this, the Beyond Bias intervention - originally designed and implemented by Pathfinder in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Pakistan, was adapted for Mozambique. Grounded in youth perspectives, Beyond Bias helps providers examine beliefs, reflect on and shift their biases, and co-create individual and facility-based solutions for respectful, unbiased, and youth-centered care. This session explores how youth-driven design can drive impactful culturally relevant adaptation of proven models for provider bias reduction. This session aligns with the theme of Connection and Relationships, emphasizing trust, reciprocity, and co-creation. We will share insights from the youth led design research and testing phase, early results from implementation of the full intervention in Mozambique and explore how this model can be further replicated and adapted to other contexts to improve SRH outcomes, dismantle systemic barriers to care, and build inclusive, youth-responsive SRH services.  

En México, cuatro de cada diez adolescentes viven con exceso de peso, lo que incrementa su riesgo de enfermedades no transmisibles. A pesar de ello, existe una escaza oferta de programas de atención primaria que priorizan la prevención en esta etapa crítica de la vida. Los Centros de Atención a la Salud del Adolescente (CASA) del Programa Instituto Mexicano de Seguridad Social (IMSS-Bienestar-Programa) son de los pocos programas que ofrecen una plataforma única para la promoción de la salud mediante sesiones grupales participativas en zonas rurales.  
Entre 2022 y 2024, UNICEF México, en colaboración con el Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP) y IMSS-Bienestar-Programa, re-crearon el módulo de fortalecimiento de capacidades para el personal de salud, integrando el diseño centrado en las personas, como una de las metodologías del enfoque de participación comunitaria de Cambio Social y de Comportamiento. El modelo incorpora recomendaciones de la comunidad y respaldadas por evidencia que facilitan la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos y la adopción de comportamientos positivos en el personal de salud, con el objetivo de mejorar sus capacidades en torno a la prevención y atención del sobrepeso y la obesidad en adolescentes de comunidades rurales. 
Como resultado de la evaluación piloto, se observó un aumento superior al 50% en el nivel de conocimiento del personal de salud sobre alimentación saludable y actividad física, así como mejoras significativas en su autoeficacia (p< 0.5) y motivación.