8th Annual Meeting on “Linking Research, Policy and Practice”

Knowledge Platform on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Internal Resource

08/01/2020 12:00 am

Share-Net Digital Platform

About

On the 28th of November, Share-Net Netherlands hosted its 8th Annual Meeting on “Linking Research, Policy and Practice” which took place at the International Institute of Social Studies in the Hague. The aim of the annual students meeting is to bring together policy makers, practitioners and researchers who are working on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in international development and students who have finalised or who are in the last stages of finalising their Master’s research on SRHR. By bringing all these actors to one place, we hope to not only disseminate knowledge but to also create a space which encourages an open dialogue on how to move forward and to discuss future opportunities. This year’s meeting included 14 students and 7 organisations!

You can read the abstracts from each students’ research by clicking here.

On the Day

An inspiring key note speech was then given by Justine van de Beek, who is the Dutch Youth Ambassador Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Justine spoke about the continuously growing need for students to conduct research on SRHR topics and spoke of the power of young people. The Youth Ambassador also talked about her role as the Youth Ambassador and her experiences thus far, including her time spent at the 2019 Nairobi Summit, and emphasised that more and more, political leaders are recognising and acknowledging the power of young people.

Following Justine’s speech, the first round of the students’ research was presented. The students were divided into two groups so that they had the opportunity to both present their findings and also listen to other students present. Each student had created a poster presentation of their findings which were hung up around the room and a gallery walk commenced.

After two gallery walk rounds, where both groups of students presented their research findings, representatives of NGO’s and institutions had the opportunity to present the work of their own organisations to the students. The organisations who were present at the meeting are as follows: Dance4Life, Rutgers, PSI Europe, Dokters van de Wereld, AFEW International, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and KIT Royal Tropical Institute. The students had the opportunity to make new networks and learn more about how research such as theirs are used by NGO’s, policy makers, research institutions etc. Below you will find each poster presentation which was displayed on the day.