YouthRISE Nigeria is an advocacy and service based organization with a mandate to promote human rights, access to quality healthcare, harm reduction, social justice and development for young people especially those vulnerable to drug use. Through strategic engagement with stakeholders and communities, we continue to champion drug policy reform and ensure better health outcomes for underserved communities. We are a recipient of the UNAIDS Red Ribbon Award.
Scale-up of Harm Reduction Program. Launch of YouthRISE Africa.
YouthRISE Nigeria is borne in response to the growing drug use and the incidence of HIV among people who use/inject drugs in Nigeria. The founding Executive Director, who was the African representative of the YouthRISE International Working group on drug use and involved in Global Fund HIV programmes in Nigeria, felt that the specific response to the epidemic driven by drug use was not being adequately addressed.
To this end, YouthRISE Nigeria organized a multi-stakeholder meeting in Abuja in August 2010, themed-Drug use and HIV: “A need for comprehensive response”, the first of its kind in Nigeria and as such generated a lot of interest not just in Nigeria but in the sub-region. The call for implementation of the Comprehensive Harm Reduction program in Nigeria and the need for sustained advocacy in this respect were key recommendations from the meeting.
YouthRISE Nigeria began light operation in 2012 and was formalized under a fiscal host to provide administrative and legal operational support for the organization before its legal incorporation in 2014.
YouthRISE Nigeria, since its inception, has been at the forefront of advocating for evidence-based policies and programs including harm reduction for people who use drugs, engaging critical stakeholders to drive drug policy reform, improve HIV services, and galvanizing CSO actions in this regard. One of the initial documented pieces of evidence of our work was the publication of the first national report on the impact of the Nigerian drug policy on the health and human rights of young people who use drugs. YouthRISE Nigeria also facilitated the formation of drug user groups & networks in Nigeria.
YouthRISE Nigeria envisions an initiative with a mission to promote evidence-based policies and development, with the meaningful involvement of young people and most affected communities.
YouthRISE Nigeria envisions a society where the health, human rights and development of every young person in Nigeria is promoted and protected