The world’s population of young people occupy a unique and important role understanding global reproductive health. Due to population growth, these numbers will continue to grow, and the time it takes for the world population to stabilize is largely determined by the actions we take today to address the health needs of adolescents. Recently, a five-year rise in age of marriage cut TFR by one quarter . In order to promote positive socio-economic changes with global ramifications, special attention must be paid to this demographic.
During the transition from childhood to adulthood, adolescents form habits including health seeking and the sexual and reproductive behaviors that will last them a lifetime. Improving the ability of adolescents to make informed reproductive health decisions has vast implications for the future. There is a need for urgent and widespread action: evidence suggests that the family planning needs of youth are 2.3 times higher than those of the adult population . The Bixby Center recognizes that family planning is essential for reducing health risks and improving educational and economic opportunities for youth.
Adolescents in developing countries are among the world’s most vulnerable populations. They are often poor with limited economic prospects and agency. Conservative cultural norms, particularly the social biases of providers, can act as barriers to reproductive health services for young people. The resulting lack of access is associated with an increased prevalence of unintended pregnancies and STIs . The leading causes of death for women ages 15-19 years in developing countries are pregnancy-related complications . Adolescent childbearing has increased risk for the infants as well – infants born to teenage mothers are 50 percent more likely to die in the first week of life than those born to 20-29 year old mothers . However, adolescents also provide tremendous opportunities for hope – their resilience and adaptability offers the ability to potentially overcome childhood adversity and create healthy and productive futures.
The Bixby Center incorporates adolescent health components to our initiatives in a wide variety of ways, ranging from strategies to keep girls in school, youth-friendly contraceptive and abortion services. The reproductive health knowledge, behavior and opportunities in the second decade can determine prospects in adulthood – an important motivation for the Bixby Center’s commitment to adolescents. Our efforts include identifying gaps in ARH knowledge, developing and testing solutions, synthesizing current knowledge for policy decision-making, and designing processes to move from evidence to policies and practice. We are mindful of opportunities to expand the research base and services available for adolescents. Interspersed throughout many of our projects and collaborations, adolescents are an important sub-group who benefit from our services, as is highlighted in some examples below.
Our Project/Initiative Areas Include:
- Partners with a wide range of organizations to develop, promote, and disseminate effective methods of improving adolescent health through a holistic perspective
- Invests in girl’s education, targeting literacy and numeracy
- Develops safe spaces for adolescent girls in resource-poor areas to learn about and discuss topics ranging from English to public speaking to hygiene
- Increases girls’ age at marriage, agency, voice, and birth spacing and reduced early childbearing
- Fosters girls’ ability to participate in making strategic life choices
- Changes social norms away from early marriage by encouraging secondary and tertiary girls’ education
- Includes girls’ empowerment and education as primary pillars
- Brings together local and international experts on adolescent reproductive health, providing them access to grants, collaboration, and research
- Building leadership in the Sahel in adolescent reproductive health
- Community-Based Distribution of DMPA in Tigray, Ethiopia
- Increases access to contraceptives in rural areas
- Combines social marketing and community-based distribution
- Identifies adolescents as populations in need of our services, the primary recipients of free injections, and will continue to look for additional ways to serve them in our future
- Gender and Partner Dynamics in Family and Planning Angola
- Increases adolescent knowledge and contraceptive use in Angola
- Bongaarts, J., A Framework for Analyzing the Proximate Determinants of Fertility. Population and Development Review, 1978. 4(1): p. 105-132.
- Obaid, T.A., Making 1 Billion Count: Investing in Adolescents’ Health and Rights. 2003, UNFPA.
- Brady, M., Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections and Unintended Pregnancy, and Safeguarding Fertility: Triple Protection Needs of Young Women. Reproductive Health Matters, 2003. 11(22): p. 134-141.
- Organization, W.H., WHO guidelines: Preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes among adolescents in developing countries. 2011, World Health Organization: Geneva.