5.4 Youth Health Health is a fundamental and cross cutting issue which has important bearing on youth’s wellbeing and capacity to partake in education, skills development, poverty eradication, and participation in the national economic, political and social processes. 5.4.1 Strategies for Youth Health a. Involve youth in identifying their reproductive and health needs and designing programmes that respond to these needs with special attention to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people; b. Establish/strengthen youth-friendly health services, including reproductive health and youth counseling services and life-skills teaching/education in every district; c. Promote increased involvement of the private sector and NGOs in education on abstinence, deferment of sexual debut and provision of family planning and STI information and services, including life skills education; d. Expand and create access to health services by young people; e. Encourage communities, policy and decision-makers as well as health service providers toward removal of barriers to youth access to sexual and reproductive health information and services; f. Integrate and expand HIV and AIDS programming in all youth activities; g. Allocate adequate financial, human and other resources to youth health; h. Institute comprehensive preventative measures and curative programmes to control consumption of tobacco, alcohol, drug and substance abuse; i. Provide technical and financial support to build institutional capacity of youth organizations addressing public health concerns especially for young people with disabilities, young people in rural areas, and young people married at an early age; j. Strengthen education programmes engaging young people as peer educators and information deliverers on health issues including HIV and AIDS, STIs, Malaria, early pregnancy, illegal abortion, alcohol and substance abuse; k. Harmonize health, education and other youth policies on health matters; l. Empower teachers, parents, students, out of school youth and health service providers with necessary information and skills regarding youth, 19