Adolescent Girls in Disaster & Conflict — Interventions for Improving Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services

Introduction

Safe spaces, mobile medical teams and youth engagement are effective ways to reach displaced, uprooted, crisis-affected girls at a critical time in their young lives. Adolescent Girls in Disaster & Conflict: Interventions for Improving Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services is a collection of UNFPA- supported humanitarian interventions for reaching adolescents when crisis heightens vulnerability to gender-based violence, unwanted pregnancy, HIV infection, early and forced marriage and other risks.

Adolescent girls are overlooked in turbulent times of disaster and conflict. Traumatized, constrained by tradition, torn from school and family structures and familiar social networks they can be lost in the crowd in a refugee camp or disrupted community. We must look harder to see the realities of girls aged 10 to 19, include them in humanitarian programming, and plan interventions that restore health and hope at a critical time between childhood and adulthood.

Millions of adolescent girls are in need of humanitarian assistance – displaced by conflict or uprooted by disaster. A crisis heightens their vulnerability to gender-based violence, unwanted pregnancy, HIV infection, maternal death and disability, early and forced marriage, rape, trafficking, and sexual exploitation and abuse. To meet their needs and respect their rights, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, provides operational, programmatic and technical support for adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) as part of its humanitarian programming.

Three areas of intervention in particular are making an impact on adolescent girls in crisis-affected settings:

• Safe spaces provide adolescent girls with livelihood
skills, psychosocial counselling for gender-based violence, access to sexual and reproductive health information and referral to services;

• Mobile clinics and mobile outreach teams bring life-saving services and supplies, including contraceptives, to adolescent girls in hard-to-reach locations when health systems are damaged or destroyed and not functional;

• Engagement and participation of adolescents and youth, especially female, is a strategy that empowers and respects girls as part of humanitarian response – as first responders, agents of change and volunteers – consulted and engaged in planning, distributing dignity kits, collecting data and communicating with peers within their communities.

Effective interventions for adolescent girls tend to share certain characteristics, starting with planning and programming before or early in a crisis. Such interventions are flexible, culturally sensitive, innovative, multisectoral and integrated. An integrated approach addresses not only HIV, for example, but also maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence as well as certain sexuality issues, and these comprehensive services should ideally be provided in an adolescent- friendly manner by qualified health professionals at a single site. They offer protection, life skills, literacy, numeracy, vocational training and livelihood skills – elements valued by girls and that serve as entry
points for adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH).1 They also provide the essential supplies to support ASRH services.

In this initial collection of effective interventions, we feature seven countries, with more examples in development.

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World Population Day – Investing in Teenage Girls

This year World Population Day sought to spotlight the need to invest in teenage girls. The graphics below show why investing in teenage girls is absolutely critical – not only for girls, but for the world.

1. There are more young people today than at any other time in human history.

Today’s generation of young people, those aged 10 to 24, accounts for around 1.8 billion of the world’s 7.3 billion people. In 1950, there were only 721 million people in this age range.

These young people are the future. Their choices, ideas and innovations will transform the world – but only if they are equipped with the right skills and opportunities.
Source: UN DESA, 2015 estimates

2. About nine out of ten of these young people live in less developed countries

A whopping 1.59 billion young people live in the developing world, where they are more likely to face poverty and lack access to health care and education.

Yet this is exactly where healthy, educated and empowered young people could make the most difference.

Source: UN DESA, 2015 estimates

3. And half of these young people face alarming vulnerabilities – because they are girls.

Violence against women and girls is one of the world’s most prevalent human rights abuses. Half of all sexual assaults are committed against girls aged 15 or younger. Studies show that about 20 per cent of women experienced sexual violence as girls.

Too often, these crimes go unpunished. They may even be tacitly endorsed by sexist attitudes and practices like child marriage.

Source: World Health Organization, 2016 

4. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before reaching age 18.

A shocking one third of all girls in the developing world (excluding China) are married off while still children. This means the futures of 47,700 girls are derailed every day.

These girls often face a cascade of other human rights abuses. They are more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. They are often pulled from school to take on domestic responsibilities. They are less able to advocate for themselves and their rights.

Source: UNFPA, 2016 estimates

5. Child marriage is often followed by pregnancy, even if a girl is not yet physically or mentally ready.

Every day, over 20,000 girls under age 18 give birth in developing countries – over 7 million a year.

Adolescent pregnancy is usually not the result of a deliberate choice. Rather, it is the consequence of an absence of choices. Girls who become pregnant tend to be poorer and to have little or no access to sexual and reproductive health care and information.

And pregnancy compounds their vulnerability, taking an enormous toll on their educations and future earning potential. It also vastly increases the risks to their health. In fact, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death among girls between 15 and 19 years old.

Source: UNFPA, 2015 estimates

6. But the solution to ending these human rights abuses is known: Empower girls.

When girls are valued as much as boys – when they are allowed to receive an education, when they live free of violence, and receive sexual and reproductive health information and care – they are able to stand up for themselves. Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy, and their future children are healthier. These girls are better able to meet their full potential, benefiting themselves, their families, their countries and the world.

We already see this happening. Since 1999, the number of countries with severe gender disparities in primary education has been cut by more than half. But girls continue to lag behind in secondary education: By 2012, out of all countries with data available, 63 per cent had yet to achieve gender parity in secondary school enrolment.

Source: Education for All, 2015

Much more must be done to protect teenage girls’ rights, and to ensure they have access to the same opportunities as boys.

“Governments everywhere need to invest in teenage girls in ways that empower them to make important life decisions and equip them to one day earn a living, engage in the affairs of their communities and be on an equal footing with their male counterparts,” said Dr. Osotimehin.

“A teenage girl whose rights are respected and who is able to realize her full potential is a girl who is more likely to contribute to the economic and social progress of her community and nation.”

– See more at: http://www.unfpa.org/WPD2016#sthash.52x9p5IK.dpuf

 

United States – Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls

Adolescence is a critical period in a girl’s life, when significant physical, emotional, and social changes shape her future. In too many parts of the world, adolescence is the most precarious time for girls. A quarter of a billion girls live in poverty. One in three girls in the developing world is married by the time she is 18, and one in nine is married by the age of 15. Every year, millions of girls undergo female genital mutilation/cutting. Millions more live in conflict settings that increase the risks of gender-based violence. Many girls continue to be infected with HIV/AIDS, and too few girls have the education or skills they need to participate fully in the economies of their countries.

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