ETHIOPIA: New strategy to tackle reproductive health issues

Via: PlusNews

Picture: PlusNews

Ethiopia has launched a national strategy on adolescent and reproductive health that aims to tackle the problems of early marriages and pregnancies, female circumcision, abduction and rape, and poor access to healthcare for 10- to 24-year-olds. Launched by the health ministry in collaboration with United Nations agencies on Tuesday, the Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health Strategy (AYRH) will be implemented over eight years.

• The report cites the 2005 Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey which showed that 80 percent of women and half of men believed that there were situations when a husband was justified in beating his wife.

• Another widespread issue was female genital mutilation. More than half of 15- to 19-year-old girls had been circumcised. Although support for this harmful practice was declining, about a quarter of 15- to 24-year-old girls believed it should continue.

• The AYRH document noted that abduction was common, especially in Oromia and southern regional states, and young women in rural areas were twice as likely to be abducted. Nationwide, many married women reported having been abducted for marriage.

• Rape was common in both rural and urban areas. A study in six peri-urban areas found that 9 percent of sexually active adolescent girls and six percent of boys had suffered rape.

• Another study among street girls in the capital, Addis Ababa, found that 15 percent had experienced rape while 43 percent had been coerced into their first sexual activity. "

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