By Haruna Gimba
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Children’s Investment Fund Foundation has granted the sum of $30m to improve adolescent girls’ access to contraception and reduce unintended pregnancies.
This was disclosed in Nusa Dua, Indonesia at the launch of ‘Adolescents 360’ project, an initiative which aims to increase voluntary, modern contraceptive use and reduce unintended pregnancy among adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in developing countries.
The four-year grant which will develop cost-effective solutions to delivering high quality, affordable and accessible voluntary contraceptive information and services to adolescent girls, will be implemented by Population Services International (PSI) and other consortium members, in three focus countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria.
According to reports about 70,000 adolescent girls die annually in developing countries from pregnancy-related complications.
Shedding light on ‘Adolescents 360’, Jennifer Pope, PSI Director of Family Planning and Reproductive Health said: “Adolescents 360 places young people at the center of the design process, encouraging them to become actors and assets to the project, and co-creating with adult allies. This not only ensures program impact, but also builds
collective efficacy and ownership of the project”.
She added: “Adolescent girls rarely have a say on matters related to their own health and many face significant barriers in accessing contraceptive services and products. Limited insight into the factors
affecting adolescent contraceptive behavior, and how to address them, continues to challenge the sexual and reproductive health community, leaving many girls without any support. This creates significant risks for misinterpretation of what the problem is and makes assumptions about the types of solutions that might work best.”
Health Reporters gathered that the project will also work with parents, boys, and community leaders to address the issues that lead to early and unintended pregnancy.
