$117M project aims at reducing adolescent pregnancy in Guyana

Jun 10, 2019 News

Guyana is known to the world as an incredibly wonderful land of unspoilt beauty, where the virgin rainforest leads to the basin of the Amazon. But behind all of this pristine beauty, and like any other country, lie many social issues that affect the people of the land.

Minister Volda Lawrence (centre) and India- UNDPF representatives.

Here in Guyana one of those issues affecting many young people is adolescent pregnancy.
Guyana has recorded the highest rate of adolescent pregnancies in the English-speaking Caribbean. Based on a report of the Situational Analysis of Adolescent Pregnancy presented to the government by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it was discovered that while in coastal Guyana 90 out of a thousand girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth during 2010 and 2015.
It was the hinterland which accounted for the majority of teenage pregnancy —105.
Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA), along with representatives of the India-United National Development Partnership Fund Project signed a $117 million pact yesterday, committing to a partnership to stamp out the social scourge in Barima-Waini, Region One, and Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo, Region Nine, by 2022.
The India- UNDPF project aims to provide the availability of, and access to quality sexual and reproductive health information and services, including commodities for adolescents. Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam believes that the launch is most appropriate and plans to give his unwavering support.
The project will be implemented in three phases in all five sub-regions in Regions One and Nine, simultaneously. Specific goals include a ten percent reduction in adolescent pregnancy in these two regions by March 2022 so as to assist in Guyana’s efforts to realize three of the Sustainable Development Goals. These are Goal 3, Good Health and Well Being; Goal 5, Gender Equality; and Goal 10 Reduced Inequities.
The health minister added, “The startling statistics reveal that Guyana has the highest rate of adolescent pregnancies in the Caribbean, our adolescent fertility rate being above average especially among our indigenous girls.”
She added that the contributory factor for such a high percentage of teenage pregnancy happens to be the lack of access to contraceptives and comprehensive sexual education, early sexual activities and risky sexual behaviours, cultural differences and poverty among others.
Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Alison Drayton, who runs the Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, informed that her organization has been committed and currently rolling initiatives across the Caribbean to reduce the incidences of pregnancies among teenagers.
According to Adler Bynoe, a UNFPA Liaison Officer for Guyana, the project also aims to empower communities, parents and adolescents to prevent adolescent pregnancy in regions One and Nine.

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