Introduction
Information, Education and Communication
Services
Advocacy and Policy Development
HIV/AIDS
Results
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Advocacy and Policy
Development
Promoting the reproductive health and rights of young
people remains a controversial topic in most countries of the world,
involving, as it does, sensitive issues of sexuality and parental rights
and duties. One of UNFPA's main programme thrusts, therefore, is to work
within country programmes and with national partners to advocate for
programmes and policies that will foster the reproductive health of all
people, including adolescents and youth.
UNFPA also advocates for basic
education, especially for girls, linking it to empowerment efforts. For
example, UNFPA works to improve the quality of basic education by
introducing new curricula that include life skills, HIV/AIDS, gender
issues, reproductive health, family life and sexuality education. It
supports training programmes for teachers to ensure gender sensitivity in
the classroom and programmes to enable them to acquire skills to
positively influence the attitudes and behaviours of students. UNFPA also
promotes education programmes for both young people and parents to
highlight the advantages of education, especially for girls, as a powerful
incentive to postponing marriage and childbirth.
In Iran, where over 51
per cent of the population is below the age of 20, UNFPA is working with
key government partners to improve adolescent reproductive health within
the country's cultural context. In Viet Nam, where the adolescent abortion
rate is high, UNFPA has worked to raise the awareness of government
authorities on the importance of adolescent reproductive education and
services. UNFPA supported the Ministry of Education and Training in
developing a project to improve in-school programmes. Partially as a
result of these efforts, the Government is now formulating a national
reproductive health strategy that includes information and services for
adolescents.
In Uganda, even though adolescents make up 35 per cent of the
total population, few programmes have addressed their specific needs.
UNFPA's interventions in the area have largely been confined to providing
peer education and counselling services. Reproductive health services for
young people, particularly if they are unmarried, have been difficult to
obtain in the public sector. The concept of adolescent- or youth-friendly
services is relatively new. However, through the Ministry of Health, the
Government of Uganda is now committed to providing 20 per cent of
adolescents with appropriate, accessible and affordable sexual and
reproductive health services by 2004. The Fund has worked with a number of
traditional cultural institutions in Uganda, such as the Kingdoms of
Buganda, Busoga and Tooro, to secure the support of policy makers for
youth-friendly initiatives. As a result, the Tooro Kingdom passed a law in
1999 raising the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18.
In Namibia, the
Fund worked with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 1999 to
develop a Population Advocacy Communication Strategy, which includes the
reproductive rights of youth. In Bolivia, UNFPA provided technical
assistance to the Government in the formulation of a National Plan for
Adolescents and Youth, which includes their rights to reproductive health
information and services. In Costa Rica, UNFPA has provided technical
support to the Government for the formulation of the "General Law for
the Young Person", which has a human rights and gender approach.
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