Surabhi Dogra
Surabhi is a public health practitioner & development communications professional with experience working in global public health, national educational and local community settings. She is passionate about harnessing communications to address public health challenges and emerging threats affecting young people. She has worked with adolescents, young people, women and children in rural and urban low-income communities in India. Surabhi is a Youth Commissioner of the Second Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. She is a member of the Youth Council of the World Health Organisation. She is also a part of the Council’s working group on climate change. She is an Officer of the Emerging Professional Network, International Association of Adolescent Health. She was selected to represent India as one of the four National Delegates at the Mock Education Ministers Summit organised by Mock COP in the run-up to COP28. Surabhi has worked for organisations including Ashoka University, Public Health Foundation of India, SEWA Bharat, Tata Memorial Hospital, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and others. Surabhi holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work in Public Health from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and an undergraduate degree in Mass Communication from the University of Delhi. Her areas of interest include adolescent, environmental and digital health, ICT4D and Youth Engagement.
I have been grateful to learn from and work with youth on employing youth engagement strategies to amplify the voices of adolescents and young people in India at a grassroots and national level. The progress in prioritisation of participation of adolescents and young people in policy and decision-making spaces has been slow across the World. Efforts to unlock policy paralysis need to be made especially in the Global South region which boasts of the highest population of adolescents and young people across the globe. My experience of working with young people fuels me to accelerate action for adolescents and young people. Wellbeing of adolescents mustn't be overlooked in the process of investing in this critical period of growth. I strongly believe that the methodology of research ‘with’ and not ‘on’ young people proposed in the UGood?! project, has the potential to convey this message while also reversing the conventional power dynamics of social sciences research. Empowering youth as equal actors in research is critical for centring their perspectives while addressing emerging issues affecting the wellbeing of adolescents and youth. “Frameworks. Indicators. Metrics. We measure adolescent and youth wellbeing through numerous standards. Do we, as young people, truly relate to these measures of our wellbeing? Do we see ourselves represented in the sea or drought of these data points? From the “Global South” to the “Global North”, relational wellbeing research and praxis need to reflect the diverse lived experiences of young people across the globe.”