News

Youth LEAD's involvement in the Youth Dialogue to Shape the Future of Education and Learning, organized by UNESCO Bangkok Office at Chulalongkorn University

We are pleased to share a practical, open access training module developed by Youth LEAD with support from UNAIDS Asia Pacific, civil society organizations, community partners, and youth leaders. It is designed for LGBTQI+ youth, media professionals, and community advocates across the region. The module helps readers recognize and respond to technology facilitated gender based violence, including cyberbullying, doxxing, sextortion, and deepfakes. The module is organized into four easy-to-follow sections. It includes thirteen participatory activities, real life case studies, and facilitator guides. It works well for in person workshops or online sessions using tools like Zoom or Miro. A sample training schedule and evaluation form are also included. You can run a full one to two day training or pick individual activities based on your group's needs. This module is grounded in survivor centered, trauma informed, and intersectional principles. It is not a therapy or legal guide, and it never requires personal disclosure of violence. Instead, it offers clear and actionable steps for building digital resilience, reporting harm, practicing ethical media reporting, and designing advocacy strategies from the individual to the systemic level. The module is free for non commercial use. If you would like to know more and roll out the tool in a training, please reach out to Youth LEAD at info@youth-lead.org.

The Grant Cycle 8 Youth Engagement Guideline for Youth-Led Organizations in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Eastern Europe to help youth leaders and/or youth-led organizations and their engagement in the process of GC8, securing youth representation in both decision making process and project implementation. Developed by the Y2Y (Youth 2 (to) Youth) Consortium; Youth LEAD, Y+ Global, and YODA.

Youth LEAD participated at the 13th APFSD which is happening from 24 to 27 February 2026 under the theme: “Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for a sustainable future for all” at the United Nations Conference Center (UNCC) in Bangkok, Thailand. Jeremy Tan Fok Jun, our program officer was invited to deliver an intervention to reflect meaningful youth engagement in urban governance at the side event on SDG11 (sustainable cities and communities). Additionally, the Forum will assess progress on the Follow-up on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. The Forum will provide a platform and sessions to support countries presenting their voluntary national reviews at the 2026 HLPF.

Youth-led organizations play a pivotal role in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. In the Asia-Pacific region, young people (ages 15–24) account for about one-quarter of new HIV infections in countries like Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and others; nearly half of new infections in 2022 occurred among youth. Overall, the region still sees 300,000 new HIV infections and 150,000 AIDS-related deaths per year, with several countries experiencing rising epidemics among young people. TB and malaria also remain major challenges: the World Health Organization reports that the majority of global TB cases (over 60%) occur in Asia-Pacific, and malaria- while nearing elimination in some Asia-Pacific countries is threatened by drug resistance and climate change-driven shifts in transmission. Despite these challenges, global efforts are yielding results. Programs supported by the Global Fund have saved 65 million lives since 2002, cutting the combined death rate from HIV, TB and malaria by 61%. More people than ever are on HIV treatment (25 million globally by 2023) and receiving prevention tools, TB detection and treatment have rebounded post-COVID with innovative approaches (e.g. AI-based screening), and hundreds of millions of mosquito nets and treatments have been delivered for malaria. However, progress is uneven: inequities and human rights barriers (stigma, discrimination, punitive laws) still prevent many young key populations from accessing services. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed vulnerabilities, devastating health systems and shrinking funding for health. It also underscored the need for pandemic preparedness and resilient health systems, which the Global Fund has now integrated into its 2023–2028 Strategy. As the Grant Cycle 8 process has begun, Youth LEAD developed the Grant Cycle 8 Youth Engagement Guideline for Asia-Pacific Youth-Led Organizations, to help youth leaders and youth-led organizations familiarize themselves with the Global Fund process at the national level, specifically for the grant development process, to ensure youth representation in decision making process and youth-specific interventions under the new country proposal.