On 21-22 May 2012, the GAF Coordinator Rada Elenkova was invited as a volunteer of You Act to join with other representatives from the SRHR movement worldwide for a strategy workshop entitled “Advancing the SRHR agenda beyond 2014 and 2015: Forging a CSOs consensus to advocate within the ICPD and MDGs review”.

The event took part in Brussels and was organized and funded by the EuroNGOs and Rutgers WPF. Co-hosts were the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN).

It offered a forum to strengthen the CSOs policy dialogue on the SRHR agenda and agree on concrete and coordinated joint actions. More specifically, it forged a strong CSO consensus on how to advance the SRHR agenda within both the ICPD review and the broad agenda post-2015 UN development framework.

Besides a list of new and emerging issues, and a roadmap to coordinate civil society action in the period between now and 2015, the workshop generated a plan for setting up a “Civil Society Platform”. Considering that the processes related to Rio, ICPD and MDGs, in addition to Beijing, are not necessarily linked and for a large part still under construction, it is deemed necessary to set up an independent Civil Society Platform to take NGO leadership on the future of SRHR.

The event offered a space for creativity and fruitful exchange of ideas and experience. The constructive dialogue increased everybody’s enthusiasm and confidence in the future activities.

You Act will actively contribute to the new Civil Society Platform in order a youth meaningful participation is ensured and sustainable progress on SRHR issues is achieved.