Youth and Family Planning by Mutale Kaimba YFPA Zambia

Young people usually face new and peculiar challenges, which require appropriate support for them to survive and grow into healthy and responsible adults.  These challenges are largely related to vulnerability to risks associated with behavior change, which could have life-long implications on health, social and economic life of their life.  In this respect, it is generally recognized that appropriate planning and management of young people’s health has significant potential to contribute to overall socio-economic development at both country and global levels.

 

There are three major arguments why it is important to focus on the health of young people and to ensure that young people are fully involved in addressing issues that affect them

1)    Young people are therefore a major demographic force

For many of the countries in Africa and other less developed countries young people

Constitute the larger percentage of the population. Those who are below 25 years for example may constitute up to 75% of the population making it imperative for governments to pay attention to the health and well being of such populations.

 

2)    Young people are a major socio-economic force:  Young people are the future of any country. Adolescents form a major proportion of the socially and economically active populations and contribute significantly to the socio-economic well-being of their families, communities and countries, through paid and unpaid labour, sports and entertainment; A young person represents the adult in perpetuation. Eventually they take over the mantle, become in charge of the cities, take over the boardrooms, parliaments, and everything.

 

3)    Young people lack services: In many countries youth do not adequately access health services more so reproductive health and family planning services. The services are simply inadequate in comparison to the growing numbers of young people who need them. Coupled with this most of the service providers may not be trained to provide services that are youth friendly. Even institutional set ups in many health facilities are not designed with a young person in mind.  Young people therefore become vulnerable to risky behaviors, which could lead to long term health and social problems.  In Zambia, by the age of 18 years, about 60% of girls and 51% of boys are reported to have had sex, and only about one quarter of adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years use condoms at first sex . Globally, about 16 million women aged between 15 and 19 years give birth each year, representing approximately 11% of all births worldwide.   In Zambia, 3 in 10 young women aged 15 to 19 years have either given birth or carrying a pregnancy.  Between 2004 and 2007, about 36,000 girls dropped out of school due to pregnancies. It is evident that adolescent pregnancy is dangerous for both the mother and the child, contributing to high maternal and neonatal moralities.

 

From the above, it is easy to see why young people need sexual and reproductive health services including family planning. This therefore calls for the need to more effectively target and serve the youth with quality accessible family planning health information and services in and out of school. Every young person needs to be empowered with accurate information and services. For this to happen a three pronged approach must be put in place by various countries

 

1)    Create a conducive environment for young people to access family planning information and services;  The major stumbling block for young people to access information and services are the gate keepers, law and policy makers, government and traditional leaders, churches, parents and guardians and to some extent service providers. These should be a primary target for change of mindset. The sleeping dogs are not lying. Young people have sex, get infected with sexually transmitted infections and young women get pregnant, have unsafe abortions. All this happens because the gate keepers have not yet seen the importance for young people to have unfettered access to information and services.

 

2)    Improve access to family planning information and services for young people; Create demand for services, more awareness programmes both for in and out of school young people. Let young people realise that family planning information and services are a right. This should be coupled with sexuality and gender  education where with emphasis on gender equality for boys and young men where there are taught to be and grow into good partners, agents of change in their communities by promoting health and users of reproductive health services available in their communities including family planning.

 

3)    Build the institutional capacities of health facilities to provide youth friendly family planning services; Ensure that family planning services are fully integrated into the health delivery system. Being innovative. Training service providers to provide non judgmental services. Addressing bureaucratic tendencies that dissuade young people from accessing services and ensuring rights based approach in the provision of services.   

 

We must therefore strive to position family planning youth friendly services as a key strategy for young people’s empowerment, development and well being