1.8 Billion Reasons to Focus on Youth

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month gathered a group of organizations, including partners from their recently completed Strategic Alliances with International Non- Governmental Organizations Program, to The Hague to discuss lessons learned under the program and to reflect on the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals.

At the meeting, PSI and many international nongovernmental organization partners working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) prepared, and ultimately endorsed, a letter to the Dutch Foreign Ministry to ensure that SRHR remains firmly on their development agenda.

Achieving consensus was challenging, except on one issue: focusing on adolescents. Authors of the letter cited some startling statistics: 50 percent of the world’s population is under 25 years old, and 1.8 billion people are between the ages of 10 and 24.

“As the largest generation ever of adolescents enters their sexual and reproductive lives, investments are needed to realize the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young girls and boys, particularly adolescent girls aged 10-14 years who are most marginalized,” the letter read.

Partners rightly called on the Ministry to make services appealing to adolescents and youth, “i.e., services that respect their human rights, are confidential, and do not require parental or spousal consent.” Authors identified “key” areas of investments for the Ministry, particularly:

• Comprehensive sexuality education programs in and out of schools and access to information and sexual and reproductive health services; as well as
• Meaningful inclusion into the shaping, implementing and monitoring policies and programs that affect youth.

In addition to the aforementioned focus on adolescents, the meeting participants also agreed to include two additional principles on the SRHR agenda:

1. respect, promote and fulfill reproductive health and rights; and
2. universal access to sexual reproductive health and rights.

The participants also pledged that regardless of the individual activities of their respective organizations, they would "jointly work towards ensuring that SRHR are at the center of our advocacy efforts, policy development and implementation of programs, enhancing inclusiveness and creating synergies within and outside the SRHR community."

The letter detailing all three principles was sent to high-level representatives in the Dutch Foreign Ministry on December 21, 2011. As of yet, no response had been issued.

– PSI Author: Michael Chommie, Director, PSI /Europe, Amsterdam.