By Hassan Zaggi
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has called for the involvement of adolescents in decision making concering theitr health and general wellbeing.
He also charged states across the country to prioritize the implementation of adolescent-friendly policies in their states.
Ehanire made the call at a media briefing to mark the 2023 Adolescent Health Week, in Abuja, on Monday.
Represented by the Director Family Health at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Boladele Alonge, Osagie noted that his ministry is collaborating with states, other ministries and agencies on matters of adolescents in order to improve their lives.
This, the Minister said is the more reasons why paying adequate attention to the health and developmental issues of adolescents should be prioritized with full involvement of the adolescents themselves at all levels of programming.
“They should be involved in decision-making processes for their own health and well-being, their empowerment and resilience, their education and skills,” he stressed.
While calling for more investment in youth related policies, the Minister reiterated that: “Today, the world has more young people today than at any time in history. Yet far too many of today’s 1.8 billion adolescents and youth (ages 10-24) will fall short of potential if current policy and investment approaches fail to meet their needs.”
The Minister revealed that approximately 12 million girls aged 15-19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions of the world and at least 10 million unintended pregnancies occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in the developing world.
According to him: “Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for 15-19year-old girls globally.
“Out of the estimated 5.6 million abortions that occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years, 3.9 million are unsafe, contributing to maternal mortality, morbidity and lasting health problems.
“Adolescent mothers (ages 10-19 years) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years, and their babies face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and severe neonatal conditions.”
He, therefore, charged stakeholders including Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to , as they mark this day, consider “deeply on the need to provide adolescents with services that is comprehensive, appropriately confidential, developmentally appropriate primary care, and that is feasible, valid, with a reliable quality measures.
“There is also the need plan towards policy implementation that use adolescent self-reported data to help assess the quality of preventive care provided to youth.
“In addition, existing measures that were developed in association with initiatives designed to improve the care delivered to adolescent patients should be considered and improved for use by external quality-measurement organizations”
