The 2013 report from UNFPA focuses on preventing adolescent pregnancy. Not unlike our own experience, it underscores the closely interlinked underlying conditions that must be addressed to achieve this: Child marriage, Gender inequality, Obstacles to human rights, Poverty, Sexual violence and coercion 19%, National policies restricting access to contraception, age-appropriate sexuality education, Lack of access to education and reproductive health services, and underinvestment in adolescent girls’ human capital.
The report highlights some horrendous statistics: 20,000 girls giving birth every day, 70,000 girls dying in childbirth each year, 3.2 million unsafe abortions performed on girls each year.
All of our countries have rates of adolescent childbirth above 20% except Mexico and Peru – and these do not represent the situation of rural girls, where adolescent pregnancy is very high.
The report tracks the indicators on the commitments made at the International Conference on Population and Development. Here are selected indicators for THP program countries.
Country | Adol. BR | Attended | Contracep. | SS female |
BD | 133 | 31 | 61 | 51 |
BF | 130 | 67 | 16 | 17 |
BN | 114 | 84 | 13 | 13 |
ET | 79 | 10 | 29 | 11 |
GH | 70 | 55 | 24 | 44 |
IN | 76 | 58 | 55 | na |
MW | 157 | 71 | 46 | 29 |
MX | 87 | 95 | 71 | 74 |
MZ | 193 | 54 | 12 | 17 |
PE | 72 | 85 | 69 | 78 |
SN | 93 | 65 | 13 | 19 |
UG | 159 | 58 | 30 | 15 |
Meaning of indiators: