Rt. Hon Hilary Benn, MP, UK Secretary of State for International Development

The 2006 World Population Day was marked this year by a reception hosted by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and co-hosted by IPPF.

This year's theme,'Young People', was the focus of the following speech by the guest of honour, the Rt. Hon Hilary Benn.

House of Lords, 10 July 2006

A year ago we promised at Gleneagles to do more to help change poor peoples’ lives for the better.

A year later we can see that we are making progress, but that there is more to do. And the task we have ahead of us is harder because of three challenges we face:

• Climate change – least caused by the countries that will be worst affected by it.
• The movement from rural areas to towns and cities. By 2020 most people in Asia will be living in urban areas, a decade later the same will be true in Africa.
• And the increase in the world’s population in the next two generations by 50% - a problem in itself, but one which will worsen the impacts of climate change and urbanisation.

The young people of today - some half of the world’s population - will shape this future. So we need to work with them now, to help shape that future for the better. And because of this, Finance ministers and heads of state need to pay more attention to young people – to their behaviour and to the services provided for them.

What do we need to do?
We need to get the conditions right for development – peace and security, good governance, a growing economy, decent public services that provide education, clean water, healthcare and help us defeat AIDS.

But in particular we need to do three things:

First – it is easier to help people establish healthy behaviour when they are young than to ask them to change later – to have safe sex, to be able to plan for their families – but young people are often invisible in the care and support provided by governments:

For example – the most vulnerable people in the world - young girls in Africa – are barely reached by programmes trying to prevent HIV infection.

Why? Because the girls most at risk are not in school. In Swaziland two thirds of girls in school are free of HIV; but it’s the opposite for girls out of school. Or these girls have to care for their younger brothers and sisters because their parents have moved away for work, or because they have died. Or simply because they have too much work to do.

Young people face barriers to access services; they cannot afford them and fear judgements when going to a clinic.

Services might only be provided to married people and they will need to get their parents consent, or services might not be confidential.

This severely limits young people’s access to contraception and condoms and leads to the high rates of unintended pregnancy and HIV in young people.

In Nepal the practice, not the policy, is that government family planning services are provided to married couples only.

However the national health statistics show the consequences - nearly a quarter of girls become pregnant before their 19th birthday; and two thirds of new cases of HIV occur among adolescents and over half of all abortions carried out occur among women aged under 25.

Secondly – what works is deeply affected by gender and power relations:

The lives of young girls are deeply affected by the views of the older generation – pressure to marry young, pressure from teachers or respected elders to have sex – it is estimated that up to half of young women and girls have been forced to have sex.

Young men often perceive “risk” as the risk of being embarrassed or losing credibility amongst their friends, rather than having unsafe sex.

This often means having sex young, keeping your girlfriend in her place - sometimes with violence and using drugs.

Young men in nine Latin American countries all reported that it was more important to them to lose their virginity early.

Young men in Brazil - as elsewhere - face huge pressures to act as a “real man” – this harms them and their partners.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, young men between the age of 15-19 have a 70% higher death rate than young women of the same age caused by taking risks.

There are lots of social pressures on young men to act in ways that put their lives at risk; we should support them to change not only condemn their behaviour.

The Department for International Development (DFID) has supported work by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana to improve traditional youth education, including taboo areas such as avoiding pregnancy and preventing HIV/AIDS – almost 30,000 young people were reached – and the number of young people using contraception increased from 27% to 80%.

In Zambia DFID support to the AIDS Alliance has helped support sexual and reproductive health sessions with 80,000 young people – a community member said – “More boys and girls recognise their rights to refuse sex, enjoy their feelings without intercourse or insist on using a condom.”

Power relations work at a global level too – some governments and institutions find it embarrassing and unacceptable to talk about these issues - but people should not die because human beings like having sex, or are forced to have sex.

Embarrassment is temporary, while death is permanent.

And therefore we need to be open and honest, fight stigma, and give all young people the knowledge and the means to protect themselves, if we are to win this fight.

Adopting ‘age appropriate’ sexual health messages and programmes which only promote abstinence doesn’t do this.

We should recognise that: not everyone can or is able to abstain from sex – especially young girls - some young girls are forced to sell sex for money or food – and this is why we challenge ‘age appropriate’ language in international fora.

Finally – no single action to influence the behaviour of young people or to improve sexual health is enough. A comprehensive approach is needed.

Young people will need a good education – yet over 100 million are not in school right now, and they’ll need jobs to go to.

They need health care and sexual and reproductive health services and information that meet the needs of today’s young people – almost 140 million women do not have access to contraception – so they have no choice in deciding if and when to have children - and this is particularly risky for girls under 15 who are five times as likely to die in childbirth and those between 15 and 19 who are twice as likely to die as women in their twenties.

This will mean a culture change in health service provision and working with men and women to change power relations between the sexes.

The youth are the future, they also shape the future - we must act now to both protect their health and wellbeing and to enable them to create a positive future for themselves.

I welcome all of your support on these issues...