WHO releases new guideline to prevent adolescent pregnancies and improve girls’ health
23 April 2025 News release
Read in full: https://www.who.int/news/item/23-04-2025-who-releases-new-guideline-to-p...
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In a bid to tackle the leading cause of death globally among 15–19-year-old girls, the World Health Organization (WHO) today released a new guideline aimed at preventing adolescent pregnancy and its significant related health complications.
Among other strategies, the guideline urges rapid action to end child marriage, extend girls’ schooling, and improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and information – all critical factors for reducing early pregnancies among teenagers around the world...
Finally, comprehensive sexuality education is essential for both boys and girls to ensure they know where to access such services and how to use different types of contraception. It has been shown to reduce early pregnancies, delay the onset of sexual activity, and improve adolescents’ knowledge about their bodies and reproductive health...
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COMMENT (NPW): HIFA has campaigned for years to have access to reliable healthcare information recognised in the MDGs and SDGs. See our BMJ paper (2020) 'Universal access to essential health information: accelerating progress towards universal health coverage and other SDG health targets' https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/5/e002475 To date, sexual and reproductive health is the only area of health that specifically calls for access to reliable information as a Sustainable Development Goal target. Further to our global consultation (2023/4) HIFA is now urging WHO to explicitly champion the goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org