The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has formed a Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) consisting of 16 members from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The YAP aims to establish a mechanism for open dialogue and exchange between UNFPA, youth groups and youth- serving groups, and to advise UNFPA on the strategic opportunities and actions to address adolescent and youth issues within the organization.

The 4th YAP Meeting and Planning workshop will be held on 5-7 December 2009 at Herald Suites Solana, Makati City. In this meeting, the panel is expected to provide technical inputs on the UNFPA program for young people for the succeeding years based on the results of teen center evaluation, workshops on programming for young people and the proposed ARH strategic direction for 2010.

The meeting will be a joint activity with Youth Peer Education Network- Pilipinas. Y-PEER is a groundbreaking, comprehensive youth-to-youth education approach. It is a network of over 200 organizations and institutions, consisting of thousands of young people, working in the broad areas of adolescent sexual and reproductive health around the world. Philippines has been chosen as one of the pilot sites for Asia and Pacific. In this meeting, the network is expected to come up with an action plan on how it will work for the next 12 months as well as propose a mechanism on strengthening the peer education programme of the country particularly those being implemented under the 6th Country Program of Assistance.