European Union co-funded Youth for Health project averts thousands of teenage pregnancies and adolescent maternal deaths in its first year

The European Union, MSI Reproductive Choices Ghana (formerly Marie Stopes International Ghana), Youth Advocates Ghana and partners have organized a joint event to formally launch and celebrate the achievements of the EU co-funded Youth for Health (Y4H) project.

Started in July 2023, Y4H is a three-year initiative that will work to expand access to life-changing adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights (SRHR), with a focus on reaching the poorest and most marginalised adolescent girls, including those with disabilities.

“In its first year, the impact of this new, adolescent-focused project has been impressive. As of June 2023, we had provided 16,500 reproductive choice consultations, which helped to avert more than 5,000 teenage pregnancies and 2,000 teenage maternal deaths.” Mr. Timothy Dolan, Team Leader – Macroeconomic and Trade, EU Delegation to Ghana.

Working in the Northern and Upper-East Regions of Ghana, MSI Ghana and the Ghana Health Service are supporting 40 public health facilities to provide adolescent-friendly, stigma-free SRHR information and services. Youth Advocates Ghana is working with civil society organizations and key government stakeholders, including the Ghana Education Service, to implement a reproductive health education pilot for in-and-out of school adolescents. This will further contribute to awareness raising and policy dialogue on the SRHR of vulnerable adolescents.

According to Mr. George Akanlu, Country Director of MSI, “the results from its first year also show that Y4H is successfully reaching people who have previously been unable to access care. For example, 13% of clients reached were living in poverty. In addition, the project has supported the inclusion of medical sign language in Ghana Health Service’s training guidelines for health workers, which means that more people with hearing impairments will receive quality healthcare services”.

European Union co-funded Youth for Health project averts thousands of teenage pregnancies and adolescent maternal deaths in its first year

At a time when the teenage pregnancy rate stands at 15%, the importance of the EU funding and the Y4H project cannot be under-estimated. This was affirmed by Dr. Hilarius Asiwome Kosi Abiwu, Deputy Director Public Health, Ghana Health Service (Northern Region), when he explained that, “Empowering adolescents with the right information and access to sexual and reproductive health services is not just a healthcare imperative – it’s a social and economic one too, paving the way for a more informed and healthier generation.”

As the project enters its second year, partners will continue to work together to build on the achievements to date and reach as many Ghanaian adolescents as possible.

European Union co-funded Youth for Health project averts thousands of teenage pregnancies and adolescent maternal deaths in its first year

The Youth for Health Project

The Youth for Health (Y4H) project is a three-year initiative co-funded by the European Union that works to expand access to life-changing adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights. Its focus is on reaching the poorest and most marginalized adolescent girls, including those living with disabilities, in rural and hard-to-reach areas of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia. By raising awareness, unlocking access and contributing towards changes in favor of supportive policies and funding environments, Y4H will increase and sustain access to reproductive choices for girls and young women.

Youth for Health is being implemented by MSI Reproductive Choices together with Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) Kenya, Health Alert Sierra Leone (HASiL), Youth Advocates Ghana (YAG), Sikika in Tanzania, Restless Development Zambia and Youth Network for Sustainable Development (YNSD) in Ethiopia.