Youth Forum Recommendations: Working Group on Health Promotion

Recommendations

1. Volunteerism

• We, the Youth, will volunteer and through our actions, get our peers to volunteer in health promotion.
• We believe young children and the youth in all countries should be taught first aid, basic health and hygienic practices.
• We believe private companies, NGOs involved in health, and educational institutions should allot a portion of their funds to youth volunteer groups, especially those dealing with health promotion.

2. Change of consumer habits

• We, the Youth, will go back to our organizations and influence our members not to buy products from:
• Factories/businesses that pollute water and air.
• Companies that employ cheap labour in unsafe and unhygienic working conditions.
• Incentives and penalties should be legislated to force the private sector to clean up their operations.

3. Information Campaign

• Civil society should encourage media (especially radio) to give youth groups free time to speak on issues such as HIV/AIDS and its stigma, TB, malaria and mental health.
• Civil society should encourage local and international artists to make music/art to promote these issues.

• We call for the cessation of advertisements on tobacco and alcohol, especially those directed towards youth.
• We encourage the creation/support of a youth network on health issues using available media.
• We expect civil society to work towards increasing the supply of medicine for devastating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, making them fully available to people who need them. Civil society should call for a change in patent legislation to ensure that developing countries are given the capacity to produce drugs.
• Civil society should encourage the use of traditional medicine and recognize the contribution of the knowledge of the indigenous people to health.

4. Conflict Areas

• There should be unimpeded access to health care or health institutions, especially in areas of conflict.