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Adolescents and Young People
SCALING UP. Worldwide, a large number of good programmes
have been started since the ICPD to address
adolescent reproductive health concerns, but most
operate on a relatively small scale. A major challenge
is to secure the resources and commitment needed
to scale up these programmes.
One organization that has had success in this
regard is Action Health Incorporated in Nigeria,
whose experiences have helped shape a national
reproductive health education programme.(26)
Government initiatives are also under way.
Following the ICPD, Mozambique made a commitment
to investing in youth. It adopted a multisectoral
National Youth Policy that involves different government
ministries, NGOs and community organizations
in an effort to increase youth participation in policy
development and to improve their reproductive
health. Designed and developed by youth, the national
project, Geração Biz, promotes behaviour change and
serves a spectrum of adolescent populations, including
students and out-of-school youth.
PARTICIPATION AND PARTNERSHIP. Youth participation
needs to be institutionalized in programme and
policy development processes, and youth must be
empowered by these processes. An initiative developed
by UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA, Meeting the
Development and Participation Rights of Adolescent
Girls, strives to put adolescence at the forefront of
the development agenda through youth participation
in the policy process.
Nicaragua, with the help of UNFPA and UNICEF,
has developed and implemented a national youth
policy that integrates reproductive health in a broader
framework of citizenship, peer education and political participation. Following a nationwide consultation
with adolescents, the Government explicitly integrated
the reproductive health needs of adolescents
into its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the first
country in the world to do so.(27)
With support from Finland, UNFPA is in the process
of establishing a youth advisory panel to ensure that its
policies integrate young people and address their
needs, concerns and aspirations. The panel will include
members from both developed and developing countries
and will focus on three topics initially: HIV/AIDS,
the needs of married adolescents, and the role of culture
in adolescent reproductive health.(28)
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REACHING ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN RURAL BANGLADESH |
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In Bangladesh, more than half of all girls marry and begin child-bearing by age 20. UNFPA and UNICEF have teamed
together to assist both unmarried adolescents in delaying marriage and married adolescents in knowing their rights. UNICEF’s intervention, Kishori Abjijan, encourages adolescent
leadership and role models and works in partnership with the Government and NGOs (the Population Council, BRAC and the Centre for Mass Education in Science). Girls are active
partners and participate in non-traditional livelihood skills programmes such as journalism and photography to enhance their confidence and visibility in the community. UNFPA is
supporting efforts to heighten adolescents’ awareness about reproductive health rights. Both projects focus on empowering adolescents but they also are helping the Government, families,
and communities support the girls’ development. See Sources
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STRATEGIC APPROACHES. A recent evaluation of
UNFPA’s and IPPF’s contributions to advancing adolescents’
health and rights in six programme countries
found that more attention to policies, processes and
to the strategic use of rights-based and gendersensitive
approaches to programming would have
made initiatives undertaken to date more effective.(29)
Few efforts are reaching marginalized groups of youth
effectively, and more work is needed to make quality
reproductive health services available and accessible
to young people in general. Findings from the evaluation,
which was funded by a number of bilateral
donors, will be used in UNFPA’s work on behalf of
the world’s young people in coming years.
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