This is the final in a series of excerpts from the 2013 State of World Population report released recently by the United Nations Population Fund.

ADOLESCENTS are shaping humanity’s present and future. Depending on the opportunities and choices they have during this period in life, they can enter adulthood as empowered and active citizens, or be neglected, voiceless and entrenched in poverty, according to the the United Nations Population Fund State of World Population report for 2013.

“Millions of girls become pregnant every year in developing countries and to a lesser extent in developed countries. The impact on their health, economic prospects, rights and futures is indisputable, as is the impact on their children, families and communities,” states the recently released report.

The report notes that while most countries have “taken action aimed at preventing adolescent pregnancy, and in fewer cases, to support girls who have become pregnant,” the activities hardly address the underlying factors of adolescent pregnancy.

“…Many of the measures to date have been primarily about changing the behaviour of the girl, failing to address underlying determinants and drivers, including gender inequality, poverty, sexual violence and coercion, child marriage, exclusion from educational and job opportunities and negative attitudes and stereotypes about adolescent girls, as well as neglecting to take into account the role of boys and men,” the report emphasises.

Below are some excerpts on charting the way forward:

Towards empowered adolescent girls and fulfilled potential

“When adolescent pregnancy occurs, it can derail a girl’s healthy development and prevent her from achieving her full potential and enjoy ing her basic human rights. The impact can reverberate throughout her life and carry over to the next generation.

“Experience from effective programmes shows that what is needed is a transformative shift away from narrowly focused interventions, targeted at girls or at preventing pregnancy, and towards broad-based approaches that build girls’ human capital, focus on their agency to make decisions about their lives (including matters of sexual and reproductive health), and present real opportunities for girls so that pregnancy is not seen as their destiny. This new paradigm should instead target the circumstances, conditions, norms, values and structural forces that perpetuate adolescent pregnancies on the one hand and that isolate and marginalise pregnant girls on the other.

“Interventions that have the power to reduce vulnerability to early pregnancy, especially among the poorest, least-educated and marginalised girls, are those that are grounded in principles of equity, equality and rights. Investments in girls — in building their human capital and their agency — can yield enormous social and economic returns, to individuals, their families, communities and nations.

“Girls need access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. They also need to be unburdened from the economic and social pressures that too often translate into a pregnancy and the poverty, poor health and unrealised human potential that come with it. Girls who have become pregnant need support, not stigma.

“Engagement by all stakeholders — families, communities, schools, health care providers and more — is essential to bring about change by reshaping social norms, traditions and practices that perpetuate adolescent pregnancy and compromise girls’ futures. Co-operation among all stakeholders can mobilise political will for investments to empower adolescent girls and build their agency.

“Everyone has a role to play. The media and entertainment industries can help through positive images of adolescent girls and women. Governments can rededicate themselves to the elimination of child marriage and gender-based violence. Parents should be attuned to the gender-discriminatory messages they transmit to their children. Opinion leaders, community leaders, teachers and health care providers should reinforce the messages that all children are of equal worth and have rights to health, educa- tion, participation and equal opportunity.

“Policymakers must involve girls — and boys — in the design, implementation, and evaluation of measures intended to help girls prevent pregnancy or manage their lives if they become pregnant. Speaking with, and listening to, girls and gaining in-depth understanding of their needs, challenges and vulnerabilities are imperative. According to the 179 governments that endorsed the ICPD Programme of Action in 1994, actions intended to benefit adolescents “have proven most effective when they secure the full involvement of adolescents in identifying their reproductive and sexual health needs and in designing programmes that respond to those needs.”

“Building a gender-equitable society in which girls are empowered, educated, healthy and protected from child marriage, live in dignity and security and are able to make decisions about their futures and exercise their rights is essential.

“UNFPA strives to uphold every girl’s right to grow up unencumbered by gender inequality and discrimination, violence, child marriage and pregnancy so they may make a safe, healthy and successful transition from adolescence into adulthood. Childhood must never be derailed by motherhood.”