The purpose of this statement is to outline key components of the youth peer provision model, summarize existing evidence, and provide guidance to integrate this delivery approach into the existing sexual and reproductive health services offered by IPPF Member Associations.

Profound changes in demographic patterns are taking place globally. Birth rates are falling in most countries around the world. Many governments are concerned about the impact of population ageing, and its consequent effects on lower economic productivity and escalating costs for medical care for older people. Some argue that birth rates must be stimulated to increase again. A few have begun to question the legitimacy of contraception and parenthood by choice, as well as challenging the principle of gender equality. This concern may also result in reduced focus on ‘the other side of the story’, namely that 225 million women who wish to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using modern contraception. Such restrictive approaches contravene people’s right to “reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so” as agreed at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, and reiterated through the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

Family planning is one aspect of the targets around universal access to sexual and reproductive health found in the SDGs (3.7 and 5.6). If your country is a FP2020 focus country or commitment maker, you can leverage the SDGs as a way of increasing the political priority of family planning, as well as ensuring the two SDG targets are being fulfilled. You can also use the Costed Implementation Plans (CIPs) – multi-year roadmaps designed to help governments achieve family planning goals – to strengthen your advocacy for the implementation of both the SDG and FP2020 commitments.

The world is facing a contraceptive funding crisis. Sufficient investment in contraception is not being prioritized at the global, national and subnational level. National and subnational governments need to prioritise family planning by allocating dedicated funds for contraceptive commodities. This discussion paper highlights contraceptive commodity security concerns in FP2020 countries in East Africa that will likely experience a reduction in global funding support for contraception from 2016 to 2020.

Millions of young people around the world are not getting the kind of education they need and deserve when it comes to understand their sexuality. This document is designed to complement Putting Sexuality back into Comprehensive Sexuality Education: making the case for a rights-based, sex-positive approach, and it aims to give practical tips for putting IPPF's right-based, sex-positive approach, into practice.   

IPPF took initiative to develop this discussion paper after advocates and programmes identified a pattern whereby sexuality was becoming marginalised within, or entirely excluded from, CSE programmes and advocacy efforts.  We believe that sexuality education programmes are worth investment and implementation because they empower, build self-esteem, competence and confidence and lead to better health and well-being for the individual young people they reach. This publication is complemented by  Putting Sexuality back into Comprehensive Sexuality Education: tips for delivering sex-positive workshops for young people.