‘Thongmai lives in a remote village in Sepon district of Savannakhet province with her husband and three children. She got married at the age of 15 years and had to drop out of school. She gave birth to her first child at the age of 17 years. She had pregnancy related complications during her second pregnancy when she was 19 years old. Now she is struggling with her health and managing her family within very limited income earned as manual labourer. 23 year old Thongmai says she wanted to become a teacher but all her dreams vanished with marriage and early pregnancy*.’

These are every day realities of many adolescent girls and young women in Lao PDR where there are over 700,000 adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 years. Majority of these adolescent girls face multiple vulnerabilities based on rural residence, ethnicity, poverty and nutritional status. They face challenges related to lack of access to information and services on sexual and reproductive health, limited opportunities for economic empowerment and essential life skills. They are at high risk of suffering from child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, violence, pregnancy related complications or even death.   

As a result in Lao PDR:

• 1 in 2 girls aged 15-19 years are anaemic
• 4 in 10 girls aged 15-17 are not in school
• 1 in 4 girls aged 15-19 is already married or in union
• 1 in 10 girls aged 15-19 already gave birth to their first child

The Government of Lao PDR has been making efforts for addressing the vulnerabilities of adolescent girls with some success. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is working with the Government of Lao PDR and other partners for empowerment of adolescent girls through the Noi approach which was launched in 2016 to empower adolescent girls and boys by increased investment and comprehensive programming. UNFPA programmes aim to create a conducive environment in which all adolescent girls in the country can thrive and all adolescent girls have all the opportunities, information and services they need to achieve their full potential, make informed decisions, delay pregnancy and early marriage.

Different interventions under the Noi approach are creating and strengthening an eco-system for adolescent girls which include supporting the Lao Youth Union for development of adolescent and youth policy, providing youth friendly services through trained healthcare providers, providing comprehensive sexuality education to students in primary and secondary schools and technical and vocational colleges, providing essential life-skills to adolescent girls through Nang-Noi Girls Groups, creating safe spaces for girls and women, strengthening research evidence on adolescents and ending violence against women and girls through expanding partnerships.

The progress of Noi approach is monitored through the Noi 2030 Framework having 5 key indicators on nutrition, health, education, gender equity and decent employment aligned with the global sustainable development goals framework, using the available disaggregated data on adolescents generated by the Lao Social Indicator Survey.

Since 2016, the Noi approach has been endorsed by relevant line ministries and development partners. Adolescent and youth friendly services guidelines have been developed and 188 healthcare providers were trained from Savannakhet, Bokeo and Bolikhamxay provinces where they reached to 3,246 young people. Essential life skills including health, social, economic and cognitive skills of 200 adolescent girls have been enhanced through 20 mentors by establishing Nang-Noi Girls Groups in Sepon District of Savannekhet Province. Manuals and teachers’ guidebooks for comprehensive sexuality education in secondary schools and technical and vocational colleges have been developed. The national adolescent and youth policy and national population and development policy have been drafted. Research evidence on adolescents through adolescent girls’ situation analysis has been strengthened. New partnerships have been established with relevant development partners.

Further active participation and multi-sectoral synergetic efforts are required from all concerned stakeholders and all segments of society to ensure the coverage of all adolescent girls as well as boys across the country. Let us all come together and join hands to make this a reality benefiting adolescent girls, their community and the nation.  

It was a revolutionary idea at the time, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 1994 recognised the right of women to decide who to marry, if, when and how many children to have...ICPD touches the most intimate parts of the lives of individuals and couple’s lives...Don’t you think it should be talked about more? We at UNFPA and our partners do!

UNFPA works to help every young person realise their full potential. We do this by reducing maternal deaths, ensuring every pregnancy is by choice and not by chance as well as addressing gender-based violence and harmful practices.

* Name changed to protect privacy.

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UNFPA works to help every young person realise their full potential. We do this by reducing maternal deaths, ensuring every pregnancy is by choice not by chance, addressing gender-based violence and harmful practices. #Noi 2030 #ICPD@25,  #UNFPA@50