VSO Inclusive Futures

Showcasing VSO’s intersectionality and livelihoods work through the Dutch-funded #MakeWay and #CFYE projects

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

PHOTOS: Our Co-CEOs Donne Cameron and Kathryn Gordon joined global partners this week in Nairobi (Kenya) and New York (in the US), respectively, for the official launch of the 2026 International Volunteer Year, a milestone moment for the global volunteering movement.

The newly launched International Volunteer Year places a bold focus on people-powered development, recognising volunteers as catalysts for inclusion, resilience and systemic change. For @VSO_Intl I VSO Nederland I #VSOInclusiveFutures, this renewed global commitment reinforces the heart of our work in supporting communities to lead, influence and shape their own development pathways.

As we prepare for 2026, this moment energises our mission even more, amplifying youth voices, strengthening community structures and championing equity and social justice across all our programmes.

#InternationalVolunteerYear2026
#PeoplePoweredDevelopment
#SocialImpact
#LastingChange

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Happy International Volunteers Day! Today we celebrate development and community workers whose passion is transforming lives and strengthening societies every day.

Tell us! What is your spark for lasting change?

#PassTheSpark @VSO_Intl
#InternationalVolunteersDay
#IVD2025
#CommunityImpact

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Today, we join the global community in marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

We believe that every woman and girl has the right to live free from violence, discrimination, and fear. Gender-based violence remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations, impacting health, limiting opportunities, and hindering progress across families, communities, and entire societies.

Through our Dutch-funded work across Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Zambia, we continue to:

🟣 Champion safe and inclusive spaces
🟣 Strengthen community-led protection systems
🟣 Support survivors with dignity and respect
🟣 Advocate for policies that protect the most marginalised
🟣 Empower women and girls to lead change

As we begin the #16DaysOfActivism, we reaffirm our commitment to a world where every woman and girl can thrive unapologetically and safely. Ending violence is not just a moral imperative, it is essential for sustainable development and social justice.

#16DaysOfActivism
#EliminateViolenceAgainstWomen
#InclusiveFutures
#VSO
#MakeWay

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

SHARING A REMARKABLE MILESTONE:
At VSO, we believe in the power of people-led development, and nowhere has that been more evident than in our partnership with the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment.

Since 2019, we have worked alongside a remarkable consortium and local Implementing Partners across 11 countries to create meaningful job opportunities for young people. Last week, CFYE celebrated a major milestone: 217,000 jobs created, matched and improved, more than double last year's achievement of 100,000!

We are proud to have contributed by introducing our unique approach to volunteering and meaningful youth participation, ensuring that young people are not just beneficiaries but leaders in shaping their futures. We also take pride in our role in fostering a greater social impact of CFYE through enhanced job quality, employee benefits, inclusivity, and professional development opportunities. With 12,000 jobs to go, we are more committed than ever to walk this final stretch, together.

#CFYE
#InclusiveFututes
#VSO

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Across Africa, young people are proving that real policy change begins when we recognise how their identities intersect, being young, being a girl, living with a disability, or growing up in poverty.

Through the Dutch-funded hashtag#MakeWay programme, led by VSO and partners, these stories of intersectionality have turned into powerful policies, including youth-led laws in Kenya, health budget reforms in Uganda, and adolescent health rights in Rwanda.

Each step forward tells the same story that when those most affected by inequality lead the conversation, inclusion stops being a policy idea and becomes a lived reality.

Read how intersectionality has shaped transformative policy change across five African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Zambia.

https://t.co/nEDGyJVzy3

#MakeWay
#VSO
#Intersectionality
#YouthVoices
#InclusiveDevelopment
#PolicyChange

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

THIS WEEK: As the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment #CFYE @CFYEmployment approaches its close, implementation partners gathered in Nairobi at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kenya for a reflection and learning roundtable, which provided an opportunity to look back and share lessons from the field.

VSO was represented by Majina Mwasezi, Youth & Gender Advisor on the CFYE Project, joining colleagues from across the consortium (Palladium: Make It Possible, VSO, and Randstad).

Together they explored:
1️⃣ . What worked well?
2️⃣ . What isn’t working as expected?
3️⃣ . What would we do differently (if implementing partners wore the funders’ hat?)

The conversations highlighted both country-level and overall fund achievements, offering valuable insights for #CFYE, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken - @DutchMFA - the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and future youth employment initiatives.

It’s inspiring to see how honest dialogue - what we call “the implementation partner lens”, can spark ideas for even greater impact in the years ahead.

#YouthEmployment
#CFYE
#VSOInclusiveFutures
#Learning

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

QUOTE: Meet Emmanuel Barare, a 26-year-old Make Way Youth Panel member from Kenya. Emmanuel is passionate about championing the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of vulnerable young people.

“As a peer educator, I work to reduce the stigma around condom use,” he says. “They’re not dirty — they’re smart, even cool.”

About #MakeWay:
The Make Way programme (2021–2025) tackles barriers to SRHR by applying an intersectional lens — showing how overlapping vulnerabilities affect access to health services. Drawing on strong evidence and data, Make Way develops innovative tools and strengthens civil society organisations to advocate for policy change and more inclusive health systems.

#MakeWay
#SRHR
#YouthVoices
#Intersectionality
#InclusiveHealth
#KenyaYouth
hashtag#HealthForAll

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Quinter Obiero (They/Them) is the Founder of Equal Voices Siaya and a #MakeWay Youth Panel Member in Siaya County, Kenya. Equal Voice was established in 2022, the same year Quinter joined the Make Way programme. Equal Voices works to advance the rights, safety, well-being, and inclusion of LGBTQ and Non-Binary youth in Siaya County through advocacy, storytelling, and safe spaces.

Quinter Obiero’s #OwnNarrative:
“Our work with queer youth focuses on rights, safety, well-being, and inclusion. From the start, everything we have built at Equal Voices has been shaped by the intersectionality knowledge and practices I learned through Make Way.

When I joined, I never imagined that my lived experience as a queer youth would help shape global conversations. Yet I have contributed to dialogues on feminist foreign policy (2023), shared insights on decolonising LGBTQ+ narratives in Africa with the Dutch Foreign Ministry, and recently spoke at the African DAG 2024 on the realities of grassroots advocacy.

Through these platforms, I have learned that intersectionality isn’t just a theory; it’s daily life. Our overlapping identities define how we experience both oppression and privilege. Decolonising LGBTQ+ advocacy means questioning harmful, colonial-era laws and reclaiming Africa’s own traditions of gender and sexual diversity. Pre-colonial societies had rich, indigenous understandings of gender that deserve recognition and respect.

Make Way also transformed how I view youth engagement. It proved that young people are experts with lived knowledge, not passive beneficiaries. From the start, we were invited to co-create, ensuring that intersectionality guided programme design, partnerships, and day-to-day practice. While the Make Way programme is closing, the movement it inspired is not. Youth leadership and intersectionality will continue as we build safe spaces, tell our own stories, and keep lived realities at the centre of every conversation and action.”

Editor's Note:
The Make Way Project is a five-year (2021–2025) intersectionality-focused Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) initiative, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In Kenya, it was implemented by VSO in Makueni County and Kilifi County alongside Kisumu, Nairobi, Siaya and Nakuru through a consortium. The project sought to break down barriers that hinder young people’s access to SRHR services by promoting innovative approaches grounded in an intersectional lens. By addressing inequalities and vulnerabilities, the project aimed to ensure that all young people, regardless of their circumstances, can exercise their SRHR fully and without discrimination.

cc @VSONL I @DutchMFA I @VSOKenya I @VSOEthiopia

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

KENYA I At just 23, Timothy Kung’eu is proving the power of youth advocacy. As a member of Youth for Sustainable Development (YSD), a hashtag#MakeWay partner in Kenya, and founder of the Equal Rights Organisation, he is championing the rights of young people with disabilities.

Living with low vision, Timothy has often faced challenges in healthcare settings, where privacy is compromised, and providers sometimes speak to his caregiver instead of him. For years, he didn’t know he had the right to respectful, private care.

Today, thanks to the hashtag#MakeWay programme, Timothy not only knows his rights but is using his voice to ensure other young people with disabilities can access healthcare with dignity and autonomy.

His testimony is a reminder that true accessibility in healthcare goes beyond ramps and equipment; it’s about respect, inclusion, and equality.

ABOUT MAKE WAY:
The Dutch-funded hashtag#MakeWay programme (2021-2025) aims to break down barriers to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) by promoting a new way of looking at, and organising, SRHR issues, through an intersectional lens. This means making overlapping vulnerabilities visible to understand their effects on people’s access to health services. Using insights and sound data, Make Way has developed innovative tools and builds the capacities of other civil society organisations to advocate for policy and societal changes.

#YouthVoices
#DisabilityInclusion
#SRHR
#Intersectionality
#MakeWay

cc @VSO_Rwanda I @VSOEthiopia I @VSOKenya

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

KENYA I #MakeWay Closure:
After five years of impact, the Make Way Project has officially concluded in Makueni County, Kenya. What started as an initiative to apply intersectionality in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) has grown into a movement, amplifying youth voices, transforming health services, and shifting social norms.

Key wins include:
▪️ Youth petitions leading to increased SRHR budgets
▪️ The Intersectionality Community Scorecard (ICSC), now embedded in health systems
▪️ Stronger accountability between communities and providers
▪️ Stigma-free conversations on gender, sexuality, and health

“When young people are empowered to lead, change is both meaningful and lasting.” — Musa Ogony, VSO Project Implementation Manager - Make Way reflects. Though donor funding has ended, the legacy lives on through empowered youth leaders, CSOs, and county structures.

This is the full closure remarks embracing how #MakeWay built a sustainable future for inclusive health systems here.

https://t.co/GnA5PMc7uZ

#YouthVoices
#Intersectionality
#SRHR
#MakeWay

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

You have probably come across the word “intersectionality” especially if you work in development. Big word, right? Well, at @VSONL I @VSO_Intl , it’s not just a jargon. Through the #MakeWay programme, we have been putting intersectionality into practice across Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to ensure young people’s voices and realities shape their access to health and rights.

To make it easier to understand, we have broken it down in simple, relatable terms, showing how overlapping identities like age, gender, disability, and poverty affect opportunities, and how youth-led action can change systems.

Here is the “layman’s guide” to intersectionality. And also be kind enough to follow us #VSOInclusiveFutures for more on our Dutch-funded, youth-led, inclusive, and livelihoods work.

https://t.co/NqJ8CzLqbO

#Intersectionality
#YouthVoices
#SRHR
#MakeWay

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Ethiopia I Event I Coffee Meet-Up I Recap

For this week’s #ThrowbackThursday, we look back at last Saturday’s Coffee Meet-up in celebration of #InternationalYouthDay2025, held in partnership with #MakeWay and #TheDisruptorsDen at @alx_ethiopia.

Themed “Youth Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Solving SRHR Challenges”, the session brought together passionate young change-makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs to explore how creativity, technology, and local action are reshaping access to sexual and reproductive health (SRHR).

Highlights from the session:
◾️ It was facilitated by Lidiya Alemayehu (Make Way Youth Panelist) and @abenazzer B. Tadesse (Co-founder, The Disruptors Den & Entrepreneurship Development Manager at ALX Ethiopia).

◾️ We engaged in discussions on intersectionality, inclusion, and youth-led SRHR initiatives.

◾️ We also held a dynamic pitching session, where participants co-created solutions to address access barriers, including communication, funding, and confidentiality.

◾️ It was an informal yet powerful space that sparked new collaborations, ideas, and networks for youth-driven SRHR action.

The energy, creativity, and solutions shared reaffirm that youth engagement is a catalyst for lasting change. There’s already momentum to host quarterly meet-ups, nurturing youth-led businesses, social enterprises, and design labs focused on SRHR. A huge thank you to everyone who made this possible, most especially our very own @Bayissayodit

AND YES WE HAVE A CALL-TO-ACTION:
Let’s build an inclusive, youth-friendly healthcare solution across Africa. Follow VSO #InclusiveFutures and join the conversation. Your ideas, innovations, and voice matter.

#InclusiveFutures
#InternationalYouthDay2025
#YouthVoices
#YouthInnovation
#YouthLeadership

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

ARTICLE I WhatsApp and Telegram aren’t just for chats, they could be gateways to youth jobs in Kenya and Ethiopia. @VSONL led research (via @CFYEmployment) shows their power for leads and networks but barriers like digital literacy remain.

Read article https://t.co/eLEPrBxonj

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

VIDEO I On #IYD2025, we celebrate the youth of Makueni County, Kenya, driving change through public participation & advocacy. Together with our #MakeWay implementing partners, they are influencing policy, boosting #SRHR access, ensuring no one is left behind.

#InclusiveFutures

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Earlier this week, a VSO youth-led #SRHR fair in Zambia, under #MakeWay, brought together young people, lawmakers and the community in a powerful call for inclusive and accountable SRHR. Here is the full story.
https://t.co/OsBucCXExV

#VSOInclusiveFutures
#YouthAdvocacy

[VSO Inclusive Futures @VSOFutures]

Welcome to #InclusiveFutures, a VSO NL platform celebrating livelihoods and intersectionality through the Dutch-funded #MakeWay & #CFYE projects. We are creating pathways to dignified youth work, breaking barriers to inclusion across Africa.

#VSO
#YouthEmployment
#Inclusion