Call to prioritise adolescent sexual health rights

Transcript

Health ministers and MPs in Pacific Island nations are being called on to prioritise adolescent sexual health and reproductive rights.

The issue of adolescent pregnancy, which aligns with the efforts of the New Zealand Parliamentarians' Group on Population and Development, was the theme of last Thusday's World Population Day.

The vice chair of the New Zealand group, Maryan Street, told Beverley Tse adolescent pregnancy in the Pacific is a significant issue.

MARYAN STREET: 56 percent of the population in the Pacific is under the age of 24. And there have been a number of studies in Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, that showed that about two-thirds of young people were sexually active, with the median age of first sexual experience being 16 years. So there is an issue around teenage pregnancy to start with. The other thing that then becomes important is how their communities respond to that. In the Solomon Islands that I visited recently with Dr Cam Calder it became very apparent that while there was no law, there was a practise of expelling girls from school should they become pregnant in their teenage years. So they wer expelled and never readmitted. That was the end of their education. Now, that is wrong on many levels - personal, emotional, but also economic.

BEVERLEY TSE: When it comes to young adults becoming pregnant, which countries have the highest rates?

MS: In Kiribati, for example, 73% of males and 49% of females are sexually active. Only 30% of young people in the Solomons attend secondary school, where lessons on sexual health actually happen. So there's a whole lot of young people who are not receiving sex education.

BT: Now, I understand there's been strong recommendations for more comprehensive sexual education and access to adolescent-friendly sex and reproductive health services. How can this be achieved?

MS: In these countries there are often non-governmental organisations that are already established and working through various aid programmes with young people. So our recommendations in the report, for further action, included engaging adolescents in decision-making processes that directly affect them, in particular ensuring they had meaningful involvement in decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. So there are already groups that are providing support for adolescents and young people in these countries.

BT: But how can they be made more successful?

MS: I think that's where the leadership from the top becomes important. Because if we can persuade MPs and ministers of health in each of these countries to prioritise more highly sexual and reproductive health in young people, then there is a knock-on effect.