Community Voices and Adolescent Girls in Governance

Adolescent girls in rural Karnataka, India, face entrenched challenges such as malnutrition, anaemia, child marriage, teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, and poor access to SRHR services. Despite statutory provisions under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment and the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act (1993), adolescents remain largely invisible in local governance. Committees mandated to address child protection and adolescent concerns are often under-utilized, and participation is tokenistic. As a result, adolescent health priorities are rarely reflected in Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs) or budgets.
The "Ambassadors of Change" model piloted by KHPT integrates social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) with governance reform to institutionalize adolescent girls' participation in local governance. Each Gram Panchayat established an Adolescent Girls' Sub-Committee (10–12 members) embedded within statutory Panchayat structures. Selected girl leaders received training in life skills, leadership, and negotiation, while Panchayat members and frontline workers were sensitized to respond more effectively to adolescent needs.
This dual strategy-building girls' agency (push factor) and strengthening Panchayat accountability (pull factor)-created enabling conditions for adolescent-responsive governance. Evidence from empowerment programs such as Sphoorthi showed that trained girl leaders successfully delayed marriage, stayed in school, and influenced Panchayats to prioritize adolescent health. Embedding this empowerment structurally ensured that adolescent voices moved from token participation to systematic inclusion in planning, budgeting, and monitoring.
By shifting SBCC practice from individual behaviour change to governance-level transformation, this model offers a scalable pathway for advancing adolescent health, SRHR, and intergenerational gender justice.

In Nepal's Sindhuli District, where harmful gender norms and stigma silence survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), Marie Stopes International Nepal (MSIN) and the One-Stop Crisis Management Center (OCMC) piloted an innovative Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) approach using method of "Theater of the Oppressed", an interactive street drama which transforms passive audiences into active participants to spark dialogue, promote help-seeking behavior, and strengthen local response systems.
Twelve participatory street plays were staged in public spaces across five municipalities, reaching over 1,500 people. Developed collaboratively with Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs), teachers, ward chiefs, and youths, each play depicted real life scenarios of family conflict, sexual abuse, gender discrimination, and barriers to accessing justice and health services. Audiences were invited to question characters, propose solutions, and discuss community responses.
This powerful blend of storytelling and engagement increased reported SGBV cases from monthly 13 at baseline to monthly 79 at endline after program implementation. Two municipalities, previously without OCMC budgets, have now committed annual funds to support survivor services and awareness programs. Local police also noted behavioral change-one case of child sexual abuse was self-reported by a survivor a week after witnessing a performance.
By combining entertainment with education, the initiative demonstrated how participatory art can bridge systems and communities, challenge norms, and raise collective resilience against violence.

People-centered health advocacy can go beyond policy meetings and come alive in public spaces through collaboration and joy. Since 2023, the Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) has organized three editions of the Primary Health Care Festival (PHC Fest) and Festival Berani Sehat (Be Healthy Festival), creating a model of community-led health engagement that places people at the center of advocacy and change. This approach reframes the right to health as a collective responsibility grounded in solidarity.
The festivals combine art, learning, and participation: visitors join casual talks on healthy and inclusive cities, experience basic health check-ups, meet community health workers (CHWs), and interact with installations such as "If I Were a Community Health Worker" and "Healthy Canteen." Based on 612 visitor feedback forms, understanding of primary health care improved (average self-score increasing from 7 to 9), with Net Promoter Scores above 75% and market fit beyond 80%, signaling strong public enthusiasm and alignment.
The initiative also created real policy impact. Following the festival, the Jakarta Health Office invited CISDI to revise the regional regulation on healthy canteens, while the management of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta partnered with CISDI to produce educational content on health and transit-oriented development. These outcomes show how joyful, community-driven communication can influence systems, strengthen participation, and advance health equity.

Esta presentación recoge las historias de vida de mujeres campesinas cacaoteras en distintas regiones de Colombia que, desde su cotidianidad, están transformando las cadenas de valor y resignificando las prácticas agroecológicas mientras impulsan estrategias de protección territorial, construcción de paz y gobernanza inclusiva. A través de un proceso de investigación participativa, basado en la observación participante y la escucha, se hizo visible su contribución específica en cada eslabón de la cadena del cacao, así como las labores de cuidado rural y ambiental que sostienen, en modelos de producción campesina, en territorios afectados por el conflicto armado y la desigualdad.
Pese a ser invisibilizadas en los espacios donde se toman decisiones, estas mujeres persisten en procesos organizativos para hacer escuchar sus voces diversas y reclamar sus derechos, recursos y representación efectiva. Su agencia no se limitan a presentar demandas: construyen propuestas que nacen de las necesidades de sus comunidades y del compromiso con la protección del ambiente y del territorio.
El proceso mostró que la comunicación, cuando parte de la confianza, del tejido de redes y de la apertura a múltiples voces, es un componente central para la protección de la vida y para avanzar hacia formas de gobernanza más justas y sostenibles. Las mujeres campesinas no solo participan del cambio: lo crean, lo sostienen y lo transmiten con sus prácticas diarias. Su labor productiva, comunitaria y ambiental revela el papel imprescindible que desempeñan en la transformación de las cadenas de valor, la cohesión social y la defensa de los territorios.