Samuel's Blog Entry

The 2^nd National Adolescent Reproductive Health summit came off at the La Palm Royal Beach hotel, Accra on August 29^th and 30^th on the theme: Effective Population Management through Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Financing Beyond Aid.

The summit, organized by the National Population Council and Marie Stopes International- Ghana aimed at showing the linkage between effective population management and Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR); provide platforms for partners to share knowledge and lessons on the implementation of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights across the country to help improve ASRHR policy, programming and advocacy; promote young peoples’ ideas and innovations in population management and SRHR; and to explore sustainable financing for ASRHR beyond donor funding.

I was super excited when I got an email from the organizers that my application to participate in the summit was successful. I was excited not only to go meet fellow young people doing amazing things, but to network and learn from organizations working hard to improve the reproductive health needs of young people across the country. I have been an advocate for ASRHR for over 5 years since I first got involved in youth work. I am particularly keen to help amplify the voices of youth in my community in Ga Mashie on the national level, to make sure we are heard in policy and budget decisions around ASRHR. I represented Act for Change at the summit. Act for Change as a youth-led organization, supports the call for budget allocation for youth-friendly SRH services and we are currently working with partners to move the campaign forward.

The Ghanaian youth faces many challenges and access to Sexual and Reproductive Health services is top on the chart. I strongly believe the government must make more commitments and efforts towards addressing this challenge. According to the World Health Organization, worldwide, an estimated 25 MILLION unsafe abortion occur every year. The Ghana Health Service has reported a total of 110,000 adolescent girls in 352 basic schools across the country got pregnant in 2016. Recently, reports from the same Ghana Health Service has indicated that a total of 53,114 abortion cases were carried out in 2017 alone across the country and almost 45 percent of the figure are unsafe. These numbers of course only capture those cases which come to the light of the authorities, so the true numbers are unknown.

Why must we (Ghanaians) sit and allow many of our young girls to die needlessly from unsafe abortion practices? Why are we not empowering young people to make informed sexual choices? Why have we ‘criminalized’ sex education in our homes and schools? Why do we make young people feel uncomfortable to discuss sex with their parents whilst providing no other sources of guidance and information?

Well I think many of you may try to answer these questions but as hard as you may try, please bear in mind that young peoples’ lives matter too.

I have always argued that we must focus on sustaining programmes that address young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health. The most effective way to make this happen is for the Ghanaian government and state agencies to fund these programmes. The call for government to make budgetary allocation for young people’s sexual and reproductive health is an extremely important call that will put Ghana on the right path to attaining demographic dividends.

As a youth advocate who believes in the power of young people, I was happy to see youth involvement in the summit, even though I would have loved to see more youth representation on the panels at the breakout sessions.

In conclusion, the summit indeed provided the platform for NGOs and governmental representatives to dialogue and I was disappointed by the absence of the Finance minister or a representative from the finance ministry. Those who have the power to make decisions over how our Government spends its money must listen to and dialogue with the people who are affected by their decisions and that includes young people.

Samuel Lamptey - Programmes Manager