by ARROW
A regional consultation on adolescent pregnancy was held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 11-12 July 2024. The consultation was a joint collaboration of SAARC, UNICEF, UNFPA and WHO. It aimed to build consensus on key recommendations to accelerate access to essential adolescent reproductive health, information, and services by engaging SAARC member states and key regional and national partners and stakeholders.
ARROW drew the attention of concerned stakeholders on the importance of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in addressing early child marriages and adolescent pregnancy. This is reflected in a Regional Technical Brief with an action plan that will be adopted by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) after negotiations with member states.
Some of the key recommendations that were included in Regional Technical Brief Draft were:
– Develop and implement policies and programmes so that all girls, including pregnant girls, are supported to stay in school, especially through secondary level.
– Ensure comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education (including life skills) is implemented, aligned with international standards and good practices. This should be provided to adolescents and young people in school and out-of-school, to support healthy lifestyles and informed decision-making.
– Integrate adolescent well-being and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights information in pre- and in-service training curriculum for frontline workers (midwives, community health workers, social workers, teachers).
– Revise policies and strategies to ensure every pregnant and parenting adolescent girl has access to quality and respectful maternal and newborn health and nutrition care. This means shifting from adolescent-friendly services – which is a good start – to adolescent responsive services. Service strengthening should focus on the primary health care and community health platform.
– Leverage digital platforms and spaces to engage adolescents and young people to expand reach, disseminate accurate CSE, SRHR and health and nutrition information and referrals to additional services.
– Strengthen multi-sectoral coordination and referral mechanism for gender-based violence response services (health, police, justice, social services.
– Invest in evidence generation, longitudinal studies, and evaluative evidence to understand what works and why, both to prevent adolescent pregnancy and support parenting and married girls.
– Include a specific focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in universal health coverage policy, plans and financing mechanisms.
SOURCE: ARROW SRHR Info Resources, Issue 17, July 2024. E-mail: 30 July 2024