Investing in the wellbeing of young people, especially adolescent girls, has been a major focus of UNFPA globally. Currently in Ghana, UNFPA and UNICEF with funding from the Canadian Government is implementing a joint programme that seeks to empower both in and out-of-school adolescent girls in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR).
As part of this, a two-day intensive working session on the development of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials is being held by UNFPA Ghana for adolescents, including those with disability, teenage mothers, victims of Sexual & Gender-Based Violence as well as those who are in and out-of-school.
These adolescents shared stories of their experiences and vulnerabilities. They specifically mentioned lack of sex education and broken homes as factors which sometimes leads them to make wrong choices.
Speaking at the opening of the working session, which was held in Accra on Tuesday 12th February, 2019, Mr. Niyi Ojoulape, Country Representative of UNFPA Ghana, stated that, ‘investing in human capital and equipping adolescent girls to be in a better position to make informed decisions in life is paramount to the development of every society.’ He also encouraged adolescent girls to speak up and share their experiences relating to challenges they faced in order to for it to assist in the production of relevant IEC materials.
The main goal of the session is to engage adolescent girls and boys in brainstorming to elicit viewpoints that will be useful in developing the content for the IE&C materials to be used in the Adolescent Girls Programme.
