Sex and young women

By Olivia H. Tripon

Women's Feature Service

New York, March 10 (WFS) – “Sex and the Hemisphere: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sexual and Reproductive Health in Latin America and the Caribbean” was launched today at a symposium organized by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Carmen Barroso, regional director of the Western Hemisphere Region, explained the linksof sexual and reproductive health and rights to poverty and development. To illustrate, she ran down figures where in the Latin American and the Caribbean, the wealthiest 20% get 60% of the income while the poorest get only 3% of the income. Yet among the rich the demand for contraceptives is 60% while, among the poor, 30%. In Guatemala, teen pregnancies among young women 15-19 is 3% among the rich and 23% among the poor. 98% of rich mothers are attended by professional medical care but only 20% poor mothers.

She reminded the audience that poverty should not only be measured in terms of income, but also in terms of discrimination, violation of rights, access to health services, even loss of hope. Less than 40% among the 20% of the poorest have no access to prenatal care, sex education for HIV prevention.

“Break the spiral of poverty by spending more on sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services,” Barroso said.

Nina Puri, IPPF president said that the absence of sexual and reproductive health as a stand alone goal in the MDGs is cause for concern because it is essential to attain the MDGs. Inequality is the greatest challeneg in eradicating poverty while the existing economic system with its intelectual property rights creating a monopoly lacks investments in poverty reduction. She said activism is essential to policy change and that IPPF will strongly recommend sexual rights and reproductive health in the MDG review in September.

Albania Villaroel, youth board member from Venezuela said that young people know what's going on and they have a clear agenda. They want the youth to have a voice in this debate since sexual and reproductive rights among the youth include many factors – age, religion, sexual preferences and perspectives. They realize that decisions at UN meetings will affect billions of people around the world. How to guarantee the participation of the young people? She urged the goverments to open its delegation to the youth.They want a separate target for sexual and reproductive issues.

Naana Otoo-Oyote of IPPF London shared a research on young women, gender and the MDGs, charting the youth in 147 countries. She said young women are not mentioned in the MDGs except in the context of HIV/AIDS and education. They have collected data from the UN, Population Reference Bureau, UNICEF to name a few sources. There are gaps due to lack of disaggregated data and also data for young women below 15, while the rest are lumped in the age group 19-49.

Some key findings: the best place for young women to live is Sweden where the sexual and reproductive health and rights are recognized; while the worst places are Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan. Only half of the 147 countries have provided information to young women 15-19 years of age.

Education has another context in developing countries. Due to lack of access to sanitary pads, young women stay home for 3 or days when they have their menstrual periods. In some places, school is several hours walk away. In Ethiopia, young women are abducted, raped and even forced to marry the perpetrators.

She cited that 60% of new HIV infections are on young people 15-24 years old with more young women than boys. The preventive “ABS” (A for abstinence, B for Be faithful and C for condoms) were found to no longer work. In Africa, condom usage is only 4 condoms a year per male due to lack of access.

In the case of abstinence, young women don't have a choice. Sexual violence against young girls are growing with 50% sexual assaults worldwide; 2.2 million girls are trafficked while 82 million girls aged 10-17 are forced to marry.

What is sexual health? According to Barroso,the World Health Organization (WHO)defines it as not the absence of disease but protection from infection, from unwanted sex which includes celibacy, if that was the choice, and also the right to enjoy sex.

She explained that IPPF is not against big families but respects the choice of women.

A doctor from the audience who worked with WHO shared that the B part also does not work since the faithful wives may be monogamous, but their partners are not.

Villaroel explained that the youth run their own center in Venezuela and Puri revealed that 20% of IPPF board members are young people under 25. They also work with men and boys to effect change.

Puri explained that IPPF looks at five A's in dealing with sexual health: advocacy, access, adolescents, abortion and AIDS. In India where she comes from, they have to deal with child brides 10-14 years old, who make up 30% of marriages.

The story of sex and young women is not at all like “Sex in the City” which is set in New York, where this review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform is taking place. Sex and the young women is nevertheless provocative due to its worrisome aspect of ignorance and lack of choice and rights.