Sexual and reproductive health is not taught in many Asian countries before high school. By then it is often too late, and 5.2 million adolescent pregnancies a year in this region can attest to that. The highest incidence of teen pregnancy is in the least developed countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal and Papua New Guinea. These pregnancies can be life threatening, and limit girls’ opportunities to complete higher education. The situation is not getting better over time. We don’t see a projected decline in the adolescent birth rate, so we must act now.

Family planning is highly personal, but it is also a matter of population health. When governments invest in family planning, they need to look at their overall health system’s readiness. India for many years relied heavily on mass sterilization programs for women, which didn’t help with birth spacing and in my personal view interfered with freedom and choice... — blogs.adb.org/blog