Over the past two days, I have had a very productive and deeply engaging time in Lilongwe, Malawi, where I joined government leaders, policymakers, legislators, development partners, youth advocates and leaders of youth-led SRHR organisations from across East and Southern Africa for a regional SRHR policy dialogue. Across the two days, the conversation moved from the enabling environment and legal and policy barriers affecting young people to one of the questions that will increasingly define the future of SRHR in our region: how do we finance the commitments we continue to make? I moderated the expert discussion on Policy Coherence and Sustainable Financing, bringing together Ms. Rose Kamanga of UNFPA Malawi, Hon. Ayebare Margaret, Member of Parliament, Uganda, Ms. Angella Nansubuga from Uganda’s Gender and Equity Budgeting Unit, Cynthia Mutame of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Namibia, and Stella Nkonya of WAG. We examined what happens between a regional commitment and a national budget. What happens when progressive policies exist without the resources to implement them. What happens to youth-led organisations as traditional financing models contract. And what a more sustainable financing architecture should look like across government, development partners and civil society. My argument was that policy, financing and implementation cannot continue to exist as separate conversations. A regional commitment only becomes meaningful when it is carried into national planning, reflected in budgets, translated into implementation and ultimately measured by what changes in the lives of young people. The ESA region does not lack commitments. What remains unresolved is the institutional and financing architecture required to carry those commitments from paper to delivery and to sustain them beyond individual programmes and funding cycles. That, to me, is where the conversation on youth leadership in health must continue to evolve. Not simply around participation, but around understanding and influencing the systems that shape priorities, allocate resources and determine whether policy actually reaches people. The work is not only to get young people into the room. It is to ensure that when we are in the room, we are shaping the questions, challenging the assumptions and influencing what happens next. My appreciation to @hivosrosa @hivosroea and fellow members of the youth advisory panel to Hivos SRHR Regional Fund for creating the space for this conversation, and to the partners who co-created and convened the dialogue;@CYECE_Malawi , @CopperRoseZM, @ForParadigm, Chipembere, Uchembere Wabwino and Youth Advocates Zimbabwe.