By Open Heart Community-Based Initiative for Health Empowerment and Sustainable Development

For too long, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) have been spoken about, consulted for, and designed programmes around without always being given the opportunity to sit at the table where decisions are made.

But meaningful participation is more than being present.

It is about having a voice. Having influence. Having the confidence, knowledge, and opportunity to shape the decisions that affect your life and your community.

This is why, at Open Heart, we believe that investing in AGYW leadership is not simply a capacity-building activity. It is an investment in the future of health advocacy, community accountability, and social change.

A Young Leader, A Bigger Possibility

In September 2026, one of Open Heart’s AGYW Champions had the opportunity to participate in the TB Women Academy residential leadership development programme in Nairobi, Kenya.

Her participation was more than an individual achievement.

It represented what can happen when young women are identified, encouraged, supported, and connected to opportunities beyond their immediate communities.

At the convening, she joined other women and emerging leaders working to advance TB responses and health equity. Through leadership development, advocacy learning, peer exchange, and networking, she gained new perspectives and strengthened her ability to engage in conversations that influence health policies, programmes, and community responses.

For Open Heart, this is the kind of pathway we want to see more often:

AGYW moving from being recipients of programmes to becoming advocates, decision-makers, and leaders in the systems designed to serve them.

Why AGYW Leadership Matters

Adolescent girls and young women experience health challenges within complex social realities. Barriers such as stigma, discrimination, poverty, gender inequality, limited access to information and services, and exclusion from decision-making can significantly affect their ability to access the support they need.

Yet AGYW also possess something programmes cannot manufacture from the outside: lived experience.

They understand the realities of their communities. They know where services fall short. They can identify barriers that may not appear in programme reports or statistics. And when given the right platforms and support, they can translate those experiences into powerful advocacy.

This is particularly important in the response to tuberculosis and other public health challenges.

A health system can have policies, guidelines, facilities, and funding but if the people most affected by those systems are not meaningfully involved in shaping them, critical gaps can remain invisible.

AGYW leadership helps make those gaps visible.

From One Opportunity to a Ripple Effect

The value of leadership development does not end when a participant returns home.

The knowledge gained can be shared with peers.
The networks established can open new opportunities.
The confidence developed can strengthen community advocacy.
And the experience of being heard can inspire another young woman to believe that she, too, belongs in spaces where decisions are made.

This multiplier effect is central to Open Heart’s approach.

We do not see leadership development as creating isolated individual success stories. We see it as building a stronger ecosystem of young women who can support one another, influence health conversations, and demand services and policies that respond to their realities.

Representation Is Not Enough, Influence Matters

There is an important difference between inviting young people into a room and giving them meaningful influence once they arrive.

AGYW should not only be represented in consultations. They should be equipped to ask questions, interpret evidence, challenge assumptions, contribute solutions, and hold institutions accountable.

They should be able to say:

“This is what is happening in our communities.”

“This is what needs to change.”

“And this is what we believe should happen next.”

That is meaningful participation.

That is leadership.

And that is the kind of leadership Open Heart is committed to nurturing.

Building the Future We Want to See

The participation of an Open Heart AGYW Champion in the TB Women Academy is one step in a much larger journey.

It reminds us that when young women are given access to knowledge, networks, mentorship, and decision-making spaces, they do not simply benefit from those opportunities they expand what is possible for others.

Open Heart will continue to create pathways for AGYW and other underserved communities to develop their voices, strengthen their leadership, participate in health governance, and influence the policies and programmes that affect their lives.

Because the future of health equity cannot be designed without the people who will live that future.