You can’t prevent teenage pregnancy in Bolivia unless you talk to teens.
Bolivia has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in Latin America, with more than a quarter of girls becoming mothers before they turn 19.
It’s not surprising, then, that when the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project consulted with adolescents, the topic of how to prevent teen pregnancy took high priority as an issue that affects all aspects of their well-being. When a girl has children at a young age, it significantly impacts her transition into adulthood, limits her education and employment opportunities and can even put her overall health at risk.
High adolescent pregnancy rates are not a new issue in Bolivia. The government is developing a national plan for the prevention of teen pregnancy and is moving it through the approval process, but Cecilia Gamboa, a gender specialist who led the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project for Plan International in Bolivia, says youth voices have been absent from the conversation that shaped the plan.
“It is necessary that youth voices be taken into account as this plan is being built,” she says. “Many youth organizations are already working on this issue in their communities and influencing local policies. The challenge is to see that the actions being taken locally get translated to the national level. That way public policy will reflect local experiences and realities.”
The Global Forum for Adolescents in 2023 offered a timely opportunity to bridge this gap. The Global Forum shone a spotlight on the importance of involving young people in the decisions that affect their lives. The Youth Leadership and Advocacy project in Bolivia took this chance to encourage the government to hear what young people have to say about their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
As part of the project, Gamboa’s team collaborated with youth networks across the country to draft a set of proposals about what was needed to support adolescent well-being and to speed progress toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposals leaned into the existing national plan for teen pregnancy as an area where youth could influence something the government already recognized as a priority. Read on to discover how youth leaders in Bolivia are drawing both national and global attention to the needs of adolescents in their communities.
One activist is bringing the realities of teenage pregnancy to the global stage.
Paola’s journey as an activist began in her hometown in southeastern Bolivia, a community she describes as “very small and very conservative.”
In 2018, Plan International launched a multi-year project in the region called Harmony and Knowledge (“Armonía y Saberes”) to support young people’s understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Paola was 12 years old when she first got involved, and she says the project had a big impact on her and the other young people who participated.
“It was the first time we started recognizing what was happening around us and that we had to do something about it,” Paola says.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights are widely considered taboo in Bolivia, and adolescents have little to no access to reliable information about family planning and contraceptive options. As a result, three out of four pregnancies in girls between 15 and 19 years old are unplanned, and pregnant girls are frequently compelled to marry or enter into a similar union.
Paola began participating in campaigns to promote these rights for youth in her municipality. She also joined a group that raises awareness of the trafficking of children and adolescents and became involved with the Bolivian Platform of Adolescents and Youth for Sexual and Reproductive Rights.
Girls deserve to dream beyond getting married. We can’t be limited by ideologies that are imposed on us.” – Paola
Now 18, Paola is currently studying medicine and sits on Plan International’s Youth Advisory Council in Bolivia, where she contributes to shaping policy and programs that serve other youth. She joined the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project in 2023 so she could help make a difference at a national level.
“We had the opportunity to showcase our realities and reach a consensus on how to address these problems,” she says.
In September 2023, Paola travelled to New York to attend the SDG Summit convened under the auspices of the UN General Assembly. She participated in a panel where she shared stories of her friends, ages 14 and 15, who had to drop out of school to get married, find work in other regions or care for their infants at home.
“It’s important to share these stories, because they deserve to be heard,” says Paola. But, she points out, listening alone is not enough. She wants to see action.
“Youth advocates are working on these issues every day, but we need the support of the authorities to have a much bigger impact in our communities,” she says. “We need laws that respond to our needs and that are effective and executed quickly.”
Watch Paola’s speech at the 2023 SDG summit.We convened a workshop in the city of La Paz to review progress and challenges in achieving the SDGs that relate to adolescent well-being. Participants included representatives from 39 civil-society organizations, including 28 youth networks from across the country.
We connected the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project to Plan’s Decide and Demand Your Rights program, which supports adolescents and young women in making informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.
We created opportunities for two youth leaders to speak at high-level global forums and draw attention to the challenges adolescents face in Bolivia as well as to the strength of youth movements in the country.
A key impact of the Youth Advocacy and Leadership project in Bolivia was the development of new solidarities among youth-led organizations. Meetings like the national SDG review in La Paz brought together members of youth networks from across the country and fostered dialogue, knowledge exchange and collective problem solving on concerns they have in common.
In response to the proposals that the youth advocates developed, government officials indicated that they intend to address the issue of teenage pregnancy and limited access to sexual and reproductive health services. Action items currently under discussion include changing regulations for more effective sexual and reproductive health services and developing the National Plan for the Prevention of Pregnancy in Adolescents and Young People.
This project was delivered with funding from Fondation Botnar and in partnership with PMNCH.
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