Onikepe Owolabi
Senior global technical director for family planning and maternal, newborn, and child health
Today’s cohort of young people is the largest in history. Almost 3 billion of us are under the age of 24, and leading a powerful new generation with a variety of global health needs—and new ideas too. So we invest in young people every day at IntraHealth, engaging them to create solutions for their future, preparing them to be smart health care users and health workers, and supporting them as they help build productive, healthy societies for the future.
Our key approaches include:
- Strengthening critical services and resources that support the most pressing needs of youth
- Tailoring interventions to the specific needs of different young people in different contexts, focusing particularly on girls’ education, sexual health, and gender equity
- Addressing the attitudes and bias in the health workforce that can prevent young people from accessing reproductive health services
- Promoting behaviors to establish healthy practices at an early age and continuing through adulthood
- Strengthening health services to ensure that adolescents have timely access to sustainable, high-quality care
- Partnering with health and education stakeholders to foster pathways for young people to enter the health and social service sectors
- Improving educational and training programs so health and social service workers are better prepared to meet youth needs
Learn more about the SwitchPoint Future League, six outstanding young people from six African countries leading their generation toward a healthier future.
Selected Achievements
In South Sudan, reached 1,424 vulnerable children and their caregivers with at least one service during a six-month period in 2019.
Led the Tanzania Human Resource Capacity Project and trained and advocated for a new cadre of community workers, para-social workers (PSW), to engage most vulnerable children (MVC) and connect them with health and social services
Built working relationships between police officers, teachers, social welfare workers, and frontline health workers to combat gender-based violence in Tanzania.
Helped the government of Tanzania roll out a new social worker cadre to care for and support the country's most neglected and vulnerable children.
Worked with the state governments of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in India to delay the age of marriage for girls. We raised the percentage of mothers surveyed who intended to consider their daughters’ consent when it came to marriage from 52% to 92%.
Resources
execteam
directors
