By Moses Magadza

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA – The Sixth Southern African Regional Students and Youth Conference on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SARSYC VI) ended in Windhoek last week with the signing of an ambitious regional accountability compact.

Adopted on 6 August 2026, the SARSYC VI Youth Health and Education Accountability Compact calls for stronger laws, increased domestic financing, and sustained parliamentary oversight to improve the health, education, safety, and well-being of young people.

It seeks to turn conference resolutions into measurable action over the next two years.

SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary General Her Excellency Ms Boemo Sekgoma, SARSYC Convener Mr Jimmy Wilford and SARSYC VI Youth Steering Committee Chairperson Ms Fadzai Nyamarebvu signed the Compact.

It translates priorities contained in the SARSYC VI Windhoek Declaration into specific commitments for young people, Parliaments, governments, civil society, academic institutions, development partners, the private sector and community and traditional leaders.

The Compact comes with deadlines, indicators and reporting requirements designed to prevent conference commitments from gathering dust after delegates return home.

“By signing this Compact, we affirm our shared responsibility to move beyond conference statements towards measurable action,” the signatories state.

Among other things, the Compact calls for greater access to age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), stronger protection of pregnant and parenting learners, better mental-health and substance-use services, action on online gambling and digital abuse, and improved access to HIV, sexually transmitted infection (STI) and sexual and reproductive health services.

It recognises youth participation as a right and insists that young people must be meaningfully involved in identifying priorities, developing policies, allocating resources and monitoring implementation, including through parliamentary processes.

Youth-led research and evidence derived from lived experience should also be recognised as legitimate contributions to policymaking and parliamentary deliberations.

The Compact places national Parliaments at the centre of implementation through their law-making, budgetary, oversight and representative functions.

Participating Parliaments and parliamentarians are expected to table evidence and priorities emerging from SARSYC VI before relevant parliamentary committees responsible for health, education, gender or youth affairs.

They are also called upon to raise at least one parliamentary question, motion, statement or debate on an agreed youth health or education priority during each ordinary parliamentary session falling within the Compact period.

Parliamentarians are encouraged to push for public hearings or committee inquiries involving young people and youth-led researchers, scrutinise expenditure on youth health and education, and advocate for the enactment, amendment or effective implementation of relevant laws and policies.

Each participating country is expected to convene at least one national youth–parliamentarian accountability dialogue during the two-year implementation period.

The Compact also calls on Parliaments to scrutinise domestic and donor financing for HIV and SRHR commodities and services and review progress in domesticating and implementing the SADC Model Law on HIV in Southern Africa.

Mental health and substance abuse feature prominently, with the Compact calling for a shift away from fragmented and punitive approaches towards integrated, adequately financed, community-based and youth-friendly services.

It advocates standardised screening for mental-health and substance-use conditions in primary healthcare facilities, campuses and youth-friendly service centres.

Parliaments are urged to push for adequate and ring-fenced financing for mental-health and substance-use services and hold committee hearings examining national mental-health budgets and service coverage for young people.

In recognition of emerging threats confronting the region’s youth, the Compact specifically identifies gambling and other behavioural addictions as issues requiring attention.

It calls for stronger online gambling laws incorporating age verification, responsible advertising, mobile-money safeguards, spending controls, transaction warnings and self-exclusion mechanisms.

The document also demands stronger legislation and institutional responses to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

Survivors should have access to confidential mechanisms for reporting abuse, preserving evidence, obtaining psychosocial support and seeking redress.

Technology companies, betting operators, financial institutions and telecommunications providers are expected to play their part in preventing digital harm.

The Compact goes further by inviting the SADC PF to consider whether a regional Model Law or guiding provisions on digital safety and gambling-related harms affecting young people could strengthen national responses.

Another feature is the recognition of endometriosis and other neglected chronic conditions affecting young people.

The Compact calls for endometriosis to be incorporated into relevant national SRHR, non-communicable disease, gender and universal health coverage frameworks.

It advocates affordable diagnosis, treatment, pain management and essential medicines through public health systems, alongside better training for health workers and increased public awareness.

Parliaments are encouraged to scrutinise national budget allocations for the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis and other neglected chronic conditions.

On education, the Compact treats CSE not merely as a health intervention but as a safeguard for school access, safety, retention and completion.

It calls for stronger pre-service and in-service teacher training, expanded access to sexuality education for rural and out-of-school adolescents and stronger implementation of school re-entry policies for pregnant and parenting learners.

Parliaments are urged to enact or strengthen legislation that guarantees the re-entry and retention rights of pregnant and parenting learners, and to scrutinise government funding for CSE and teacher training.

The Compact similarly demands stronger HIV and STI services in universities, colleges and surrounding communities, including condoms, testing, counselling, treatment, referrals and accurate health information.

Unlike declarations with open-ended aspirations, the Compact establishes a two-year accountability timetable leading to SARSYC VII.

Within 30 days, the final Compact must be circulated.

Within 100 days, every participating parliamentary, institutional or country delegation should have undertaken at least one initial accountability action, such as a motion, petition or public consultation.

Within six months, national or institutional youth-accountability dialogues should have taken place, including at least one engagement with a national parliamentary committee, followed by submission of initial progress reports.

After 12 months, the first regional Youth Health and Education Accountability Scorecard and interim impact report are expected to be published and presented to the relevant SADC PF Standing Committee.

At 18 months, implementation gaps will be reviewed, and outstanding actions accelerated.

Finally, within 24 months and at SARSYC VII, a final scorecard and impact report will be published and presented to the SADC PF Plenary Assembly, setting the stage for another accountability cycle.

Progress will be measured partly through parliamentary questions, motions and debates; committee hearings and inquiries; movement on relevant legislation and SADC PF Model Laws; and trends in national allocations for youth health, education, mental health and digital safety.

The SADC PF will support this process by referring the Compact and Windhoek Declaration to its relevant Standing Committees, helping Member Parliaments benchmark legislation, policies and budgets, and facilitating capacity-building and regional knowledge exchange.

Young people, meanwhile, undertake to turn youth-generated research into policy briefs, engage parliamentarians with credible country-level evidence, mobilise communities and monitor whether institutions honour their commitments.

The Compact also assigns responsibilities to governments, universities, civil society, development partners, businesses and traditional and community leaders.

Private companies are specifically called upon to ensure that commercial interests do not undermine young people’s health, dignity, safety or financial wellbeing, while traditional and community leaders are encouraged to spearhead initiatives against stigma, violence, harmful practices, substance abuse and discrimination.

Ultimately, the Windhoek Compact seeks to change the relationship between young people and institutions from one of consultation alone to one of measurable accountability.

It declares that commitments affecting young people must be financed, measurable and verifiable, with responsible actors, timelines, indicators and evidence of implementation.

The Compact recognises the SADC PF as a strategic institutional partner and invites Member Parliaments that were not represented at SARSYC VI to associate themselves with it.

The conference drew participants from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, Eswatini, Mozambique, Uganda and Namibia.

-Moses Magadza is the Media and Communications Manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.