UNFPA Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean – “ We must invest in young people to realize the potential that resides within them,” Sheila Roseau, Director, UNFPA Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean, said today at the launch of the agency’s flagship report, The State of World Population Report 2014, entitled The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation of the Future in Kingston, Jamaica.
Nine in 10 of the world’s record 1.8 billion young people – those between ages 10 and 24 – live in developing countries. With proper investment in their education, health, human rights and welfare, these countries could see their economies soar, the report says.
This is because when a country’s working age population is larger than that which is younger and dependent, it can reap a “demographic dividend.” This is an economic boom in which households are better able to save and invest and economies are more productive. But to maximize this dividend, countries must ensure young people entering the work force are equipped to make the most of the opportunities before them.
To do this, countries must do more to protect human rights, including reproductive rights, improve health, including sexual and reproductive health, and provide skills and knowledge to build young people’s capabilities and autonomy.
Many of the world’s young people encounter obstacles to their rights – to education, to health, to live free from violence and struggle against almost overwhelming odds. In some countries, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than to complete her education, Ms. Roseau noted.
A staggering 57 million young people are out of school. One in seven new HIV infections occurs among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. More than one in three women, including those who are young, suffers violence from an intimate partner. Every minute, 27 girls are forced into marriage and expected to have a child while they themselves are still children.
The report notes that young people often face additional hurdles, such as laws and social norms that can keep them from receiving reproductive health information and services – services they urgently need – to preserve their options, pursue their future goals, and even save their own lives.
Ms. Roseau noted that Caribbean youth face similar challenges including poverty and inequality, limited access to skills training and tertiary education, high unemployment, hopelessness leading to migration, threats to health and well-being, including high rates of violence including sexual violence, early sexual initiation among others.
The State of World Population report makes the case for urgent investment in young people so they may be engaged in their communities and the development of their nations. It also calls for the removal of barriers to their accessing key services, especially sexual and reproductive health care and information. Without these essential services, young people cannot protect themselves from HIV, cannot prevent a pregnancy, and cannot have control over their own bodies.
For example, while millions of women have an unmet need for contraception, it is married adolescent girls, ages 15 to 19, whose unmet need is the greatest of all. They are only about a third as likely to use contraceptives as married women over 30. Many of these girls have no say in the matter. Unmarried adolescents also struggle to get information that could help them avoid early pregnancy or HIV. Health care workers or families may be hostile or judgmental, and laws may require young people to get parental consent to obtain family planning information or services.
The consequences of this unmet need can be grave. Among 15 to 19 year-old girls in low and middle-income countries, complications from pregnancy and unsafe abortions are a leading cause of death. And while HIV fatalities for other age groups are falling, among adolescents, they are rising, she noted.
The report recommends a number of interventions to solve the problems for young people which include : Stopping early and forced marriage and preventing adolescent pregnancies, strengthening sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights among young people, including adolescents, preventing and addressing sexual and gender-based violence, discouraging harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, promoting equal education for girls and improving young people’s prospects for employment and job creation.
Ms Roseau emphasized that UNFPA has been working in countries across the globe including the English and Dutch Speaking Caribbean to meet adolescent health needs. These include working with CARICOM to develop a strategy and plan to reduce adolescent pregnancy, supporting youth participation and leadership through UNFPA’s Youth Advisory Group, facilitating young people’s participation in a number of regional and international events including the Third International Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). “W e have an adolescent and youth strategy that guides our work,” she stated.
She added “Young people deserve the chance to pursue their dreams and to thrive. As this report shows very clearly, by helping youth secure their future, we can also secure our common future.”
The State of World Population 2014 was launched at the National Youth Conference hosted jointly by the Ministry of Youth and Culture and the University of the West Indies Department of Government with support from UNFPA.
Contact: Althea Buchanan at 9068591 or buchanan@unfpa.or
