Between 2021 and 2024, 90 young women known as auditors challenged health authorities in their respective districts (Burkina Faso: Koudougou, Réo, Koupéla, Tenkodogo; Senegal: Mbour and Matam) to improve sexual and reproductive health services and ensure the active and effective participation of young people in health decision-making bodies.
The completion of a social audit in the six health districts confirmed our assumptions:
- The youth-friendly approach is rarely implemented in health centers, which undermines young people's trust in health care providers. Adolescents and young people are treated as patients in the same way as adults or pregnant women, without taking into account their specific needs.
- Young people have no place in decision-making bodies to discuss the policy choices that determine their own health.
Supported by Equipop, Youth and Development, Raes, Burcaso, and SOS Youth and Challenges, the listeners engaged in the various stages leading to feminist health democracy (described in the guide) in order to gradually integrate themselves into the frameworks in which public health policy is debated, implemented, and evaluated. Although not present in these forums, it is nevertheless essential that the experiences of young girls be heard and listened to on an equal footing with other stakeholders, in order to ensure effective accountability in health and take into account the specific needs of young girls.
Feminist democracy in health is a lever for working on other issues (sexual and sexist violence, the needs of young people and more specifically young girls and people who are discriminated against and in vulnerable situations, comprehensive sexuality education, etc.) that a non-feminist approach would not have been able to address.
A healthy democracy based on feminist values (tolerance, kindness, listening, solidarity, cooperation, intersectionality, sisterhood) also allows us to refocus our thinking on the privileges enjoyed by certain users (depending on their age, standard of living, etc.) by recognizing the multiplicity of experiences and the intertwining of power relations and sexist, racist, economic, and political violence.
In summary, implementing approaches to democracy in health from a feminist perspective means enabling the gradual transformation of power relations.
The guide "En route vers la démocratie en santé !" (Towards democracy in health!) traces the empowerment journey of the listeners and sets out the initial guidelines for the next phase of the program: Jeunes en vigie phase II (Youth Watch Phase II).
