Auteur : Millennia2025
Source : UNFPA
UNFPA's Action for Adolescent Girls
"As part of its Adolescent and Youth Strategy approved in 2012 and its new Strategic Plan 2014-17, UNFPA committed to stepping up investments towards ending child marriage and reducing adolescent pregnancy by supporting governments to reach the most marginalized adolescent girls, especially those at risk of child marriage and married girls. UNFPA is delivering on this commitment through Action for Adolescent Girls, a 12 country initiative, in a manner that is aligned with the ICPD Programme of Action and fully within the framework of the Fund's new Strategic Plan 2014-17.
The goal of the initiative is to protect adolescent girls' rights, in particular delay age at marriage and childbearing, and empower the most marginalized girls.
The purpose of the initiative is to support governments in making targeted investments at scale in 12 countries over 5 years (2013-17) to reach thousands of girls at risk of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, through interventions (primarily community-level girl groups) that provide opportunities for social participation and leadership, gaining life skills and literacy, and accessing health services including family planning and HIV services. The initiative simultaneously strives to create a more favorable environment for adolescent girls at the community and national levels.
A robust theory of change underlies UNFPA's evidence-based approach to ending child marriage and preventing early pregnancy. Supporting governments in building the agency, knowledge, and skills of large numbers of girls at risk of marriage and pregnancy, in sub-national areas where child marriage and adolescent pregnancy are concentrated, will over time effect an increase in the age at marriage and pregnancy in those areas. Past work by the Population Council and UNFPA has already produced ‘proof of concept' for this approach in countries like Ethiopia and Guatemala. UNFPA's Action for Adolescent Girls now aims at scaling up efforts in these countries and expanding the approach to several more countries.
Focusing on adolescent girls at risk in sub-national areas not only allows governments to reach a critical mass of girls, unmarried and married, but also presents significant cost efficiencies. This concentration of investment in itself helps elevate the status of all adolescent girls, changes norms by changing what is normal, and catalyzes a reduction in child marriage and adolescent pregnancy not only in those geographic areas but nationally as well. Complementarily, strategic global and national advocacy helps to sustain both political will and financing for programs that invest in these girls.
We expect the programme to improve the lives of adolescent girls by:
• delaying marriage and pregnancy
• improving sexual and reproductive health and HIV knowledge and practices
• increasing the demand for and use of quality, rights-based, voluntary family planning
• enhancing girls' autonomy, social networks, and participation
• reducing school drop-out
• creating an enabling environment to uphold girls' rights and entitlements
Through Action for Adolescent Girls and its overall commitment to adolescents and youth, UNPFA is consolidating its support to governments and civil society in order to put in place a range of policies and programs aimed at upholding the rights of girls, building their capabilities, and expanding their choices."
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