Motherhood in Childhood

overlooked by policymakers and development
programmes everywhere. A deeper understanding
of the challenges confronting 10 to 14-year-olds
is urgently needed, and pregnancy prevention and
support for very young adolescent mothers must
be advanced to the top of the sexual and reproductive
health and reproductive rights agenda of
governments, development institutions and civil
society. It is with this group that the greatest need
lies and that the obstacles have been thus far
insurmountable.
1 Reach girls ages 10 to 14
Intervene early with preventive measures
The needs, vulnerabilities and challenges of
very young adolescents—between ages 10 and
14—are often overlooked by policymakers. But
interventions at this critical stage of their development,
characterized by profound physical,
cognitive and social changes that occur in puberty,
are needed to ensure girls’ safe and healthy
transition through adolescence into adulthood.
Governments, communities and civil society
should seize opportunities arising during this
formative period to begin laying the foundations
for girls’ sexual and reproductive health and
reproductive rights—and enjoyment of all their
human rights in the long run. Strategic timing
of preventive interventions, including the provision
of age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality
education and steps to enable girls to attend and
remain in school, allows for positive outcomes
before the circumstances of young adolescents’
lives are set.
Give visibility to girls traditionally invisible to
policymakers
Effective policymaking has been hampered in
many countries by a dearth of data and contex-
“My uncle slept with me. I don’t
go to school anymore. At school,
they do not accept girls who
become pregnant.”
Affoué, 13, Côte d’Ivoire
tual information about very young adolescents.
Researchers and policymakers should join forces
to fill this data void to ensure very young adolescents
are not overlooked by or excluded from
services and to ensure their rights are protected.
National censuses and future household
surveys should include a basic set of questions
about 10 to 14-year-olds. These questions
should address whether biological parents are
alive and living in the household, whether the
adolescents are married or already parents themselves,
how much education they have attained
and whether they are still in school, and whether
they hold jobs or work outside the home. Where
such data exist, they should be easily accessible,
and be analysed separately from data on older
adolescent girls.
At the same time, data on younger and older
adolescent girls should be combined to identify
and highlight the trajectory from childhood
through adolescence to adulthood. Such an analysis
reveals critical junctures in the lives of girls
that are preceded by critical investment windows.
Such data and analyses when presented to
stakeholders can be used to inform policy and
programme priorities, ensure properly weighted
resource allocation, influence programme design
THE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2013
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