Senegal in the world

Senegal

In Senegal, nearly 60 per cent of the population is younger than 20. Adolescents, chiefly girls, are threatened by social and economic problems such as sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, drug and tobacco abuse, poverty, violence, unemployment and illiteracy.

Surveys show that about one fifth of girls have had premarital sex, often unprotected, before they turn 15. About the same proportion marry before the age of 15. A quarter of young women have children between the ages of 15 and 20.

UNFPA and UNICEF launched a project entitled An Initiative to Promote the Empowerment of Adolescent Girls in Senegal in 2001, in partnership with governmental and non-governmental agencies, including the Ministry of Youth, local and international NGOs, and youth and village associations.

The project aims to offer to adolescent girls life skills training and expanded life choices in sexual and reproductive health, education and employment. In the first two years of implementation the goal was to reach 10,000 poor adolescent girls, between the ages of 11 and 20, identified through partner organizations. The project seeks to break the cycle of poverty by addressing the most pressing problems of those young people most in need: girls who are poor, both married and single, often coming from broken homes, and often mothers.

More information and activities on this project >>