January 1970

RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW NEPAL

Year: 2016 – 2020
Supported by: Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and RHRN Consortium
Partnership with: Association of Youth Organization Nepal, Beyond Beijing Committee, Blue Diamond Society, CDS Park Mugu, Family Planning Assosciation of Nepal, Federation of Sexua and Gender Minorities Nepal, Human Development and Peace Campaign Nepal, LOOM Nepal, Rural Women Organixation Nepal, Restless Development, Youth Action Nepal, Youth Development Center, YUWA, Yuwalaya
Major component: advocacy, sexual and reproductive health, media campaign, safe abortion, comprehensive sexuality education, marriage equality

Introduction

Right Here Right Now (RHRN) is a global strategic partnership that is active in ten countries, and the Caribbean sub region. This partnership is funded by the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Right Here Right Now Nepal platform is a strategic partnership between fifteen likeminded youth-led and youth-serving organizations, that are advocating for enhanced experience of young people on sexual and reproductive health, focused on three thematic areas - provision of age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, legalization of marriage equality and provision of stigma-free, youth-friendly safe abortion services.

Visible Impact, has been involved with RHRN since its inception in Nepal in 2016, and in 2017 became the member of the platform formally. It has been part of capacity building programs conducted through RHRN network which has helped it to develop a clearer vision of advocacy plan, along with ample opportunity for networking and growth.

Activities conducted under the project

 

Development of Advocacy Tools

During the implementation phase of the project, Visible Impact has developed various documents which has been used to support the advocacy on CSE, Safe Abortion, and Marriage Equality. Position papers on all three thematic issues, Issue brief on SRHR of young people for province 1, 3, and 6, a reference document for policy makers to support advocacy on quality, stigma free and youth friendly safe abortion services have been published. A part from these Visible Impact has also developed a Call to action for the 25th review and appraisal and of Commission on Population and Development 2019 and National youth recommendation for Nepal’s national commitments at Nairobi Summit, 2019.

Research

Visible Impact has carried out study to generate evidence on the importance of stigma free and youth friendly safe abortion service, and research on the experience of out of school children on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in 2017/18.

Participation in regional and international advocacy spaces

Focal persons of Visible Impact have been consistently participating in various regional and international advocacy spaces so as to put forward the thematic issues RHRN Nepal has been advocating on. Some of the major regional and international spaces were High Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2017, APCRSHR 2017, APFSD 2018 and 2019, CEDAW 2018 and CPD 2019.

Public Support Generation and Awareness

Public support generation and awareness was done through the campaign “Who Decides?”, a social media campaign on safe abortion. The campaign is mainly active in two most popular social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. We provide factual and correct information on abortion so as to reduce the stigma around it through youth friendly measures like social media contests and Facebook live session with experts. Under this campaign, we have developed Public Service Announcements, web and audio drama series. Visible Impact has also identified and sensitized a celebrity, Dayahang Rai, to speak about safe abortion in public spaces in order to reach out a large number of young people of Nepal. Our offline campaign activities include day celebration, panel discussions, photo sessions, various contests, flash mobs etc.

Media sensitization

Through media monitoring and media sensitization, Visible Impact has been promoting factual and stigma free coverage on the issue of safe abortion, marriage equality and comprehensive sexuality education.

Capacity development of platform members

Visible Impact has conducted capacity development on Gender Transforamtive Approach (GTA), Universal Periodic Review (UPR), campaign lab, social media campaigning, amplifying youth presence at international advocacy spaces, etc.

Our Impact

Currently the campaign page of Who Decides? has a total of 12,978 followers. The PSAs which were produced under the campaign were screened in two of the popular theaters of Kathmandu and as per the occupancy during the screening time frame more than 220,000 people have watched it. The web drama series was released in the YouTube channel of Visible Impact which has a total of 14,000 views in its first episode.

The call to action and national youth recommendations on CPD and ICPD +25 Nairobi Summit were handed over to concerned government bodies and other important stakeholders.