Guinea

Adolescent girls and young women bear a particularly high burden of poor sexual and reproductive health. Globally, adolescents ages 15-19 have a higher risk of maternal mortality than older women, they are less likely to space pregnancies at least two years apart than older women, and they have lower contraceptive use and higher unmet need for contraception than older women.

In Guinea,  the median age at marriage among women 20-49 years old is 16, one-quarter of women aged 20-49 were married by age 15, and 85 percent of women aged 20-49 were married by age 20.

Data in Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger reflect these global trends. West Africa has consistently lower contraceptive prevalence rates as a region than the rest of Africa, and has some of the highest unmet need for contraception in the world. In particular, adolescent girls and young women in the region confront myriad sexual and reproductive health challenges ranging from early marriage to unintended pregnancies to gender-based violence.

Despite the poor sexual and reproductive health indicators, young women, especially young married women, continue to be an underserved and vulnerable group who are socially isolated, have less access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, are not empowered to advocate for their sexual and reproductive rights, and are often missed by current reproductive health programs.

Pathfinder recently opened an office in Guinea to address the many sexual and reproductive health problems faced by youth by capitalizing on the current momentum around sexual and reproductive health and family planning in the region. The Pathfinder team is providing technical support, ongoing mentoring, and supervision to contribute to the strengthening of the responsiveness of the health systems to adolescents and youth and further develop the capacity of local partners in AYSRH technical strategies, program implementation, and monitoring.