World Population Day 2013

Tomorrow is the 11th of July and that means "World Population Day" as decreed by the United Nations Population Fund. This year's theme is adolescent pregnancy.

About 16 million girls aged 15-19 give birth each year, and complications from pregnancy and child birth are the leading cause of death among girls in this age group, especially in developing countries.

Adolescent pregnancy is not just a health issue, it is a development issue. It is deeply rooted in poverty, gender inequality, violence, child and forced marriage, power imbalances between adolescent girls and their male partners, lack of education, and the failure of systems and institutions to protect their rights. To bring these issues to global attention, this year’s World Population Day is focusing on adolescent pregnancy.

This topic takes me back to my doctoral dissertation, which was on teenage marriages (the consequence almost always of a teenage pregnancy), except that back then we were worried more about the US (California in my case), rather than developing countries. I hope that signals progress.