The Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) invited a member of NATIONAL’s Toronto Healthcare team to attend its Global Adolescent Health Conference in Ottawa on May 16 & 17. As the lucky member of our team to attend, it was an exciting opportunity to have a bird’s eye view of the work that it is providing to the national and global community.
CanWaCH partnered with Every Women Every Child, the World Health Organization, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and Global Affairs Canada to focus attention exclusively on one generation – adolescents. International delegates included cabinet ministers, high-level officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and the event focused on four issues: nutrition; sexual and reproductive health and rights; mental health; and data.
The conference, rightly titled Unleashing the Power of A Generation, provided powerful information. The single most impactful insight for me was that there are about 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 – the largest youth population ever. According to the UN’s Office of the Secretary General on Youth, children or adolescents make up a majority of the population in the world’s 48 least developed countries.
Bringing together of such an impressive group of leaders created the opportunity for many powerful moments during the conference. In fact, the word “powerful” almost became its own theme throughout the day. One of the most memorable quotes came from Gogontlejang Phaladi, a young leader from Botswana who spoke about the double disadvantage of being a woman and a youth. As she ended her remarks, she reminded us all of the strength and courage she has by stating: “If you aren’t invited to the table, dress more comfortably to be able to sit on the floor.”
There were several impactful moments at the conference, but what’s most important are the relationships built across government and industry and the tangible and realistic goals that will be set out and will have the most enduring impact.
To find out more about the conference or about CanWaCH, please visit canwach.ca.
