World Population Day 2016, aimed at “Investing in Teenage Girls”, works to educate about pregnancy health and nutrition and end malpractices like child marriage.
- World Population Day 2016 theme – Investing in Teenage Girls
- Inspired by the public interest in Five-Billion-Day in July 11, 1987
- Education of girls and elimination of malpractices – Aim of World Population Day 2016
UNFPA has aimed to end child marriage, minimize adolescent pregnancy and work towards women empowerment. Educating the teenage girls about the following aspects, form the main agenda of the theme “Investing in Teenage Girls”.
- Human rights
- Reproductive rights
- Health issues related to pregnancy
- Complications of teenage pregnancy
- Importance of nutrition
Health risks for a baby born to a teenage mother include:
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Deficiency diseases
- Complications like asphyxia and forceps delivery during birth
- Sexually transmitted diseases that may be passed from the mother to the baby
- Lack of prenatal care
- Malnutrition
- Anemia
- High blood pressure
- Preeclampsia
- Obstetric fistula
- Postpartum hemorrhage
- Maternal death
- Postpartum depression
- The most important causes of teenage pregnancy are early marriage, exploitation and poverty.
- Every year, about 3 million girls worldwide resort to unsafe abortions that pose a risk to their health and lives.
- Teenage pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19 years, worldwide.
- In 2014, about 25000 babies born belonged to mothers aged 15 to 19 years of age.
- There has been a steady decrease in teenage pregnancy from 1991 to 2014 due to the reduction in sexual activity or by using birth control methods.
- Young women living in foster care are more likely to become pregnant than those not in foster care.
- The highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world is in The United States.
UNFPA has spread its wings across the world to:
- Promote access to sexual and reproductive health
- Promote gender equality across schools, villages and countries.
- Access to reproductive health and reproductive rights
- Strengthening health systems
- Training midwives
- Educating teenagers about sexual and reproductive health
- Providing health services
- Child marriage
- Female genital mutilation
- Practices that violate girls’ rights
- Practices that perpetuate inequalities
- Gender-based violence
- 2016 Theme: Investing in teenage girl - (http://www.un.org/en/events/populationday/)
- World Population Day - (https:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Population_Day)
- Population Day - (http://www.unfpa.org/events/world-population-day)
- Teen Pregnancy - (http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm)