Young people make up the largest and fastest growing proportion of the population in Tanzania; half of the population is below the age of 17. Investment in young people’s sexual and reproductive health is critical to protect their well-being, maximize their potential for healthy and productive lives, and improve social and economic development.
UNFPA’s Strategy on Adolescents and Youth, Towards Realizing the Full Potential of Adolescents and Youth, represents our strong commitment to the human rights of young people. The goal is to work with and for young people (nothing for young people without young people) towards a future in which they are healthy, educated, free from sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, are not exposed to violence, unintended pregnancy or unsafe abortion, where their human rights are promoted and respected.
We contribute to the advancement of adolescents and youth in five strategic ways:
1. Enable evidence-based advocacy for comprehensive policy and programme development, investment and implementation.
2. Promote comprehensive sexuality education.
3. Build capacity for sexual and reproductive health service delivery (including for HIV prevention, treatment and care).
4. Take bold initiatives to reach marginalized and disadvantaged adolescents and youth, especially girls.
5. Promote youth leadership and participation.
Adolescents and young people in Tanzania face many risks as they navigate their lives – unemployment and economic exclusion, unintended pregnancies, maternal death, STIs , and gender-based violence (GBV).
We work with partners, including government, civil society, and youth-led organizations, to extend access to sexual and reproductive health information, counselling and services – including voluntary, family planning, HIV testing and counselling, and GBV prevention and response services – to all young people, prioritizing the most vulnerable, including young people in humanitarian settings. And we provide extensive training to healthcare providers to ensure that sexual and reproductive health services equitably deliver on the needs of adolescents and young people.
We work with national and local government and civil society to implement comprehensive sexuality education, both in school and through community-based training and outreach for out-of-school youth; and promote young people’s access to information and utilization of services through peer education networks. We support programmes promoting gender equality, especially those reaching vulnerable adolescents and those that support young mothers.
Through innovation, we identify, accelerate and scale up inclusive solutions that address the sexual and reproductive health challenges of adolescents and young people in Tanzania. Our Innovator’s Accelerator gives young entrepreneurs an opportunity to develop solutions to address their sexual and reproductive health challenges, including those living with disabilities – some of the furthest behind. While the iPlan scheme is an innovative microinsurance scheme that delivers high-quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services to young people at a subsidized annual fee contributing to advance Universal Health Coverage.
