FOR the most part, our families and villages will embrace a child even if it is born out of wedlock to an adolescent mother, something frowned upon in most conservative-religious communities; but the acceptance of the child is an aspect of our culture that reflects tolerance, love and care.
In fact one of the issues communities are grappling with today, especially island nations that remain close to our metropolitan big brothers which allow for easy migration, is the fluidity of their population base that translates to a dwindling number of young, working-age people.
In these cases, it has become socially-acceptable that adolescent girls have children; the child is welcomed into a community that largely comprise the elderly and youth, to sustain a critical mass for their population.
The United Nations (UN) defines adolescent girls as those between 10 to 19 years. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) respects your basic human right, whether you're an individual or a couple, to decide the spacing and the number of children you have.
There are more than 600 million girls in the world today, more than 500 million of them in developing countries. About 16 million girls aged 15-19 give birth each year, and complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls in this age group, especially in developing countries.
The state of health of these girls and young women has implications on national and community issues whether one speaks of population and development, maternal health, young people, gender equality and/or sexual and reproductive health.
Unintended adolescent pregnancy, particularly at the rate we are witnessing today the world over, has long ceased becoming merely a "family problem". Studies have found links between the status and value of girls and women in societies and the progress (or not) of a family, community, villages and nations as a whole.
On July 11, UN member states commemorate World Population Day (WPD); the UNFPA is the lead agency in this instance being the UN arm that concerns itself with population dynamics and the human rights and development issues inextricably linked to it.
On Thursday this week, WPD will be celebrated across the globe; activities are largely dependent on governments and their plans. The UN suggests a theme each year; the 2013 theme is Adolescent Pregnancies. The UNFPA Pacific office is aware of at least two schools, William Cross Secondary School in Makoi on the outskirts of Suva and the Sigatoka Andhra Sangam College which will commemorate WPD this year. Makoi Health Centre intends to start on July 10 with a day of information dissemination and condom distribution from the centre.
Unintended adolescent pregnancy is not just a health issue, it is a development issue. It is deeply rooted in poverty, gender inequality, violence, child and forced marriage, power imbalances between adolescent girls and their male partners, lack of education, and the failure of systems and institutions to protect their rights.
"They are shaping humanity's present and future. The opportunities and choices girls have during adolescence will enable them to begin adulthood as empowered, active citizens," UNFPA executive director Dr Babatunde Osotimehin says of adolescent girls.
"With the right skills and opportunities, they can invest in themselves, in their families and their communities. However, pregnancy jeopardises the rights, health, education and potential of far too many adolescent girls, robbing them of a better future."
In the last two years, the UNFPA has been facilitating a review of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action which was agreed to by 179 countries in Cairo in 1994.
The Pacific Regional ICPD Review report found that the while births to adolescents have declined in eight countries, teenage fertility rate (the births to women aged 15 to 19 years per 1000 women of the same age group) continue to be well over 60 in five countries. In comparison, Australia's teenage fertility rate was 17 per 1000 births in 2010, New Zealand's 26, Britain 27, France eight, Germany 10 and so forth.
The high contraceptive unmet need across the region - the portion of women who desire (modern) contraceptives but cannot access it for a range of reasons - is reflected in the high incidences of adolescent pregnancies and the fact that contraceptive prevalence rate for young women (between 15-24 years) in most countries were "extremely low" albeit stated desire to delay child-bearing or spacing of children.
All countries reported that they had been working at improving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights for girls and women, and efforts have been made at providing "youth-friendly" spaces; however all also noted that rural and island-based communities' access to SRH services would need attention in the next five years.
Governments involved in the review listed their priorities for the next five to 10 years; adolescent pregnancies and the provision of social protection services for them, and the high rates of sexually-transmitted infections among young people were noted by several countries. Some countries did not perceive adolescent pregnancy as an issue of concern as it has become socially-acceptable.
The report suggests a fundamental shift in how adolescent pregnancy is perceived. Perhaps we as society need to view unintended adolescent pregnancy as a lost opportunity and a violation of girls' right to reach the highest possible level of education they can, so they can realise their full potential as individuals.
Adolescent girls have the right to realise the totality of social, cultural and economic contribution they are capable of, to themselves, their families, communities and nations. Medical advances means more babies are surviving into adolescence and adulthood - Pacific communities can be socio-economically transformed as other developing nations have been because they (the latter) invested in girls' health and education. This investment delayed child-bearing and boosted the number of healthy, trained and qualified individuals for their economies and facilitated women having children at a time when they wanted to have children.
Adolescent girls in the developing world are a huge untapped resource but they need to be given the opportunities. And the first step to this is an enabling environment - ending discrimination against adolescent girls and developing and implementing appropriate legal frameworks. We can break the cycle of unintended adolescent pregnancy but our commitment and investment in adolescent girls has to be made now, or it could be too late.
Governments can ensure that adolescents and youth are provided with age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education to develop the knowledge and skills they need to protect their health throughout their lives. This should be complemented by good-quality reproductive health services which all adolescents can access, without barriers like requiring authorisation from a senior family member.
However you spend Thursday (July 11), we ask that you ponder upon the issue of adolescent pregnancy which sometimes stems from situations where consent was not given. We ask that we consider as individuals our responsibility to ensure that all adolescents grow up respecting and valuing each other as individuals and the positive implications of a healthy and empowered young generation.
The UNFPA Pacific Sub-Regional Office wishes you a meaningful World Population Day.
- This is part of a series of columns provided for publication to Fiji's largest national daily newspaper, The Fiji Times
