African Youth Advocacy Network - Kenya

African Youth Advocacy Network – Kenya (AYAN Kenya) is a Kenyan youth-led, feminist and rights-based organization established in 2015 to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender justice, mental health, HIV prevention, bodily autonomy, and the protection and wellbeing of marginalized and underserved young people. The organization emerged from the recognition that adolescents and young people—particularly adolescent girls and young women, sexual and gender minorities, young mothers and persons with disabilities—continue to experience significant barriers to accessing accurate information, quality health services, justice, safety, education and meaningful participation in decisions affecting their lives.

AYAN Kenya’s vision is “SRHR for all respected.” Our mission is to advocate for policies, legislation, systems and practices that promote and protect SRHR for adolescents, young women and sexual and gender minorities. We believe that health and rights are interconnected and that young people's ability to exercise their rights is influenced by social norms, gender inequality, poverty, stigma and discrimination, violence, disability, economic exclusion and the accessibility and responsiveness of public institutions and services.

Since its establishment, AYAN Kenya has evolved from a grassroots youth advocacy initiative into an organization implementing community-based programs and policy advocacy across Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori, Siaya and Kisii counties. Our work combines direct community engagement, health and service linkages, capacity strengthening, advocacy, documentation, evidence generation and collaboration with government and civil society actors. We work closely with communities, health facilities, County Health Management Teams, youth-led organizations, civil society partners and other stakeholders to address barriers to health, safety and rights.

Our core program areas are sexual and reproductive health and rights; mental health and psychosocial support; gender justice and gender-based violence prevention and response; HIV prevention and linkage to care; abortion access and post-abortion care advocacy; protection of sexual and gender minorities; disability inclusion; and social and economic empowerment.**

AYAN Kenya has developed and implemented innovative community-led models responding to specific barriers faced by young people. These include the Mama Care Model, which strengthens access to maternal and reproductive health information and services for young women and mothers through community and facility engagement; the Adolescent Mothers Childcare and Education Model, which addresses the challenges that prevent adolescent mothers from continuing their education while connecting them to essential health and social support; and Stawisha Kina Dada, which addresses menstrual health, education access and socioeconomic barriers affecting adolescent girls and young women.

Our work in SRHR also includes advocacy around bodily autonomy, access to safe and quality reproductive health services, abortion-related information and post-abortion care. We engage county and national stakeholders to promote policies and systems that protect young people's rights and reduce discrimination and barriers to care. In Kisumu County, for example, AYAN Kenya has participated in advocacy processes around the County SRHR Bill, including efforts to ensure that post-abortion care remains recognized within the policy framework.

We also work to strengthen the safety, dignity and wellbeing of sexual and gender minorities. In an increasingly hostile environment characterized by stigma, discrimination, violence and anti-gender narratives, AYAN Kenya supports community members through information, referrals, psychosocial support, documentation of violations and advocacy. Our approach recognizes that health outcomes cannot be separated from safety, human rights and the ability of individuals to live free from violence and discrimination.

Mental health has become an increasingly important pillar of AYAN Kenya's programming. Young people experiencing discrimination, violence, social exclusion, economic insecurity and other forms of marginalization may face significant psychosocial challenges while having limited access to appropriate support. We therefore integrate mental health awareness, psychosocial support, referrals and community-based support mechanisms into our programs. We also work with partners and stakeholders to strengthen recognition of mental health as an essential component of SRHR, protection and overall wellbeing.

Our programming is grounded in community ownership. Rather than designing interventions exclusively from an institutional perspective, AYAN Kenya works with young people and community members to identify priorities, develop solutions and generate learning. We intentionally create opportunities for young people to participate as peer educators, advocates, community mobilizers, researchers, storytellers and decision-makers. This strengthens the relevance and sustainability of our interventions while building the leadership capacity of the next generation of rights advocates.

Through our programs, AYAN Kenya has reached tens of thousands of people with SRHR information and services, mental health and psychosocial support, HIV prevention and care interventions, and referrals to social and economic support. Our monitoring systems capture both reach and service outcomes, while community feedback, documentation and learning inform program adaptation. Across our recent programming, we have recorded more than 45,000 beneficiaries, including over 16,000 people reached through SRHR services, nearly 6,000 receiving mental health and psychosocial support, and more than 9,000 reached through HIV prevention and care interventions, alongside thousands of referrals to economic and other support services.

The organization has also invested in advocacy and movement-building. AYAN Kenya participates in county and national policy discussions, collaborates with youth and feminist movements, and uses evidence from communities to influence decision-makers. Our advocacy has addressed SRHR policy, post-abortion care, HIV prevention, gender justice, mental health, disability inclusion and the protection of sexual and gender minorities. We believe that direct service delivery and systems-level advocacy must reinforce each other: communities need access to services today, while policies and institutions must change to ensure sustainable access tomorrow.

AYAN Kenya operates in a context where civil society organizations face increasing pressure, shrinking civic space, stigma around SRHR and sexual and gender minority rights, economic uncertainty and significant challenges in securing flexible and long-term funding. Changes in the global funding environment have particularly affected organizations working on HIV, SRHR, gender justice and marginalized populations. These realities have reinforced our commitment to strengthening organizational resilience, diversifying our funding base and building long-term partnerships that recognize the value of locally led solutions.

Our strategic direction for 2027–2031 focuses on consolidating AYAN Kenya as a stronger, more sustainable and influential youth-led organization. We intend to deepen our work in the counties where we currently operate while strengthening partnerships with local movements, community structures, government institutions and other organizations. Our programmatic priorities include expanding access to inclusive SRHR information and services; increasing community-based mental health and psychosocial support; strengthening advocacy for bodily autonomy and quality post-abortion care; improving protection and referral systems for people experiencing violence and discrimination; strengthening disability-inclusive programming; expanding HIV prevention and linkage to care; and improving economic resilience and social protection linkages for vulnerable young people.

We also plan to strengthen and scale successful community models, document and disseminate evidence from our work, and invest in youth leadership and movement-building. In the coming years, AYAN Kenya aims to support more young people not only as beneficiaries but as advocates, peer leaders, community organizers and decision-makers capable of influencing policies and systems at county and national levels.

Institutionally, we are strengthening our governance, financial management, monitoring, evaluation and learning systems, digital information management, communications, resource mobilization and partnership development. A key priority is building a more diversified funding portfolio that includes institutional philanthropy, individual giving, diaspora engagement, strategic partnerships and other sustainable resource-mobilization mechanisms. This is particularly important to enable AYAN Kenya to maintain core community interventions and respond rapidly to emerging needs without being entirely dependent on short-term project grants.

Looking ahead, AYAN Kenya seeks to build an organization that is both locally rooted and globally connected—one that is accountable to the communities it serves while able to engage effectively with national, regional and international partners. We want to demonstrate that youth-led organizations can deliver high-quality programs, influence systems, generate credible evidence and lead meaningful social change when they are trusted, adequately resourced and given the flexibility to respond to the realities of their communities.