Because I am a girl: The State of the World's ... - Plan Deutschland

it is for us to show our emotions. This I
have learnt in the workshop.” 109
• In Poland, young people have been
trained as ‘field counsellors’, visiting
cafés, youth clubs and other gathering
places to educate their peers who
Sex education
in Vietnam.
N i c h o l a s J a c k a
are experimenting with drugs on the
risks posed by substance abuse, HIV/
AIDS and STIs. The young counsellors
are trained to assess individual needs
and offer appropriate information and
referrals. 110
• The HIV-prevention project ‘Young Men
as Equal Partners’ works in districts in
Tanzania and Zambia to motivate young
men to adopt healthy and responsible
sexual behaviour. Teachers, church
leaders, medical staff and young
leaders are all involved in encouraging
young men to engage in HIV-prevention
and sexual and reproductive healthseeking
behaviours through activities
such as peer education and counselling,
gender awareness workshops, and
drama performance. Use of condoms
among young men increased from 55
per cent to almost 78 per cent during
the three-year project period. 111
LEGAL framework – ACCESS TO
CONTRACEPTIVES AND PREGNANCY OPTIONS
L a r s S c h o l t y s s y k
“All countries should take steps to meet the family
planning needs of their populations as soon as
possible and should, in all cases by the year 2015,
seek to provide universal access to a full range of
safe and reliable family planning methods and to
related reproductive health services which are not
against the law. The aim should be to assist couples
and individuals to achieve their reproductive goals
and give them the full opportunity to exercise the
right to have children by choice.”
Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and
Development, Cairo, 1994
International standards require that states ensure
access to accurate and comprehensive information
about contraceptives and pregnancy options, as
well as to related reproductive health commodities
and services. Countries across the globe have been
making contraceptives more widely available and
affordable. In 2009, following a court decision, the
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approved the sale of the Plan B (levonorgestrel)
‘morning after’ contraceptive pill – which prevents
pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected
sex – without a prescription for anyone 17 years
or older. 112 Women’s health advocates hailed this
greater access to emergency contraception as
a responsible approach to addressing women’s
health and tackling unintended pregnancies in the
US, which has the highest rate of teen pregnancy
among the world’s most developed countries. 113
This year, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare approved the distribution of the first
emergency contraceptive pills to be available in
Japan. 114 Provision of emergency contraception (EC)
is also standard practice in global protocols treating
women who were subject to sexual violence.
Because EC is a form of contraception, many
countries that permit it – such as Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, El Salvador, Kenya, Pakistan, Thailand and
Venezuela – have highly restrictive abortion laws. 115
Yet, in 2000, the Constitutional Court of Peru
prohibited the sale or distribution of the morningafter
pill. The Court decided that emergency oral
contraception could be considered an abortive
substance if there is a possibility that this would
inhibit implantation of a fertilised ovum. The court
banned the Minister of Health from launching a
distribution programme to benefit economically
disadvantaged women with free EC pills. 116
7 Conclusion: paving the
way to a better world
“If I were President of my country, I would
write a rule which said: whatever women do
men have to do too. Equal rights!”
Dani, 16, Brazil,
from Plan research for this report
All too often, say adolescents, their needs
and skills are not recognised and their voices
not heard. The focus is on younger children
or older youth. There is little recognition of
the fact that girls and boys at this age are
developing differently and require different
kinds of support at different stages of their
adolescent lives.
This chapter has dealt with some of the
increasing pressures on both girls and boys
as they reach adolescence. For boys in
particular, the straitjacket imposed on them
by notions of toughness and the effort of
keeping their vulnerabilities to themselves
undermines their physical and mental health.
Both young men and young women would
benefit from a society with less rigid notions
of masculinity.
Adolescents, as we have seen in this
chapter, have a lot to say about gender and
how it plays out in their lives. And girls and
boys, young women and young men, have
a right to have their voices heard. We would
do well to listen. As Nelson Mandela, former
President of South Africa and champion of
young people, said, they are the future: “My
dear young people, I see the light in your
eyes, the energy in your bodies and the hope
in your spirit. I know it is you, not I, who will
make the future, will fix our wrongs, and
carry forward all that is right in the world.” 117
In recent years, there has been an increasing
focus by the international community on
adolescent girls. This is important work
and needs to be translated into many more
programmes on the ground, building girls’
skills and capabilities, and ensuring that their
environment supports them as they grow into
women. But unless there are also programmes
for boys, the struggle for gender equality will
never be won.
Looking to
the future.
100 the s tate of the world’s girls 101