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Future Life Now

Capacitating the system to create a safe teaching and learning environment

Challenges

Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with 70 per cent of the population under the age of 30 – most of whom live in poverty. South Africa, like most African countries, faces myriad challenges that threaten the reciprocal relationship between education and health, thus potentially frustrating the opportunity presented by its youthful population. Furthermore, girls continue to be at risk as they disproportionately face individual, social and structural barriers. It is evident that governments need to provide enabling environments for all children.

Toward a Solution

As a response to these challenges, the 16 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States have adopted two integrated and influential regional South-South cooperation initiatives: Care and Support for Teaching and Learning and Future Life-Now! The Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) Framework was developed in the early 2000s as an approach to strengthen the education sector’s ability to respond to the needs of the large number of vulnerable children and youth in the SADC Region. It provides a means of advancing human development, as it positions the education system as an effective vehicle through which to implement strategies that effect systemic and sustainable change. At school level, the CSTL approach facilitates the concept of schools as sites of integrated support, where child- and youth-friendly services are provided in support of health, gender, migration, food security, child protection and related challenges.

Since the adoption of the SADC Policy Framework on CSTL by education ministers in 2016, Member States have continued to demonstrate commitment to it as a framework to support the delivery of quality teaching and learning. In 2014, South Africa, like other Member States, developed a contextualized framework to guide the country’s school-based care and support response. A SADC Technical Working Committee on CSTL comprising CSTL focal point persons from all SADC Member States, meet biannually and progress is monitored against the CSTL Results Framework.

The Future Life-Now! initiative was developed as a regional intervention to respond to the continuing development challenges facing youth in the SADC Region. Contributing to and building on the CSTL Policy Framework, the programme brings together two critical elements for human development — education and health — to address the persistent and interlinked challenges facing young people. With the goal of supporting “empowered and capacitated youth in the SADC Region leading responses to twenty-first century development challenges, specifically those related to health, gender, climate change and unemployment”, the content is as follows:

  • IF education systems in the SADC Region are strengthened to respond to the twenty-first century challenges, especially those presented by health, gender, climate change and youth unemployment,

AND

  • IF knowledge relevant to the FutureLife-Now! goal is produced, shared and utilized to strengthen and expand implementation in the Region,

AND

  • IF schools provide a package of support that prepares and supports youth to address issues related to health, gender equality and climate change,

AND

  • IF young people have access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence support and services through strengthened education and health sector partnerships and are given opportunity to  exercise their agency,

THEN

  • young people in the SADC Region will lead responses to the challenges of the twenty-first century, specifically those related to health, gender, climate change and unemployment.

FutureLife-Now! has contributed directly to SADC’s vision of “ensuring that all people in the SADC Region enjoy a healthy sexual and reproductive life; have sustainable access, coverage and quality SRHR services, information and education; and are fully able to realise and exercise their SRH rights, as an integral component of sustainable human development in the SADC Region”.

The following is a summary of the Programme’s contributions to date:

  • Policy has been harmonized and strengthened through regional policy frameworks and strategies: for example, the Boys’ Vulnerability Framework addresses the specific needs of boys and young men in order to promote gender equality and improved SRHR health outcomes for girls and boys; the SADC Child and Youth Agency Framework was endorsed by education ministers in June 2022; national climate change learning strategies that outline each Member State’s commitment to addressing climate change.
  • Annual learner surveys have shown improvements in learners’ knowledge on HIV and SRHR.
  • The Improved access to SRHR and HIV services and support have supported improvements on health outcomes through school-based delivery of health services.
  • Results show youth-led climate action, improved knowledge and awareness of climate change
CONTACT INFORMATION
Andile Dube, Education Manager, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) South Africa
SDG
04 - Quality Education
SUPPORTED BY
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Government of South Africa

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