The State of World Population 2013, produced by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), notes that out of the 7.3 million births, 2 million are to girls who are 14 or younger, many of whom suffer grave long-term health and social consequences from pregnancy such as obstetric fistula, and an estimated 70,000 adolescents in developing countries who die each year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth.Too often, society blames only the girl for getting pregnant. The reality is that adolescent pregnancy is most often not the result of a deliberate choice, but rather the absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control.

“Too often, society blames only the girl for getting pregnant,” said UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin. “The reality is that adolescent pregnancy is most often not the result of a deliberate choice, but rather the absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control. It is a consequence of little or no access to school, employment, quality information and health care.”

The report, Motherhood in childhood: facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy, seeks to offer a new perspective on teenage pregnancy, looking not only at girls’ behaviour as a cause of early pregnancy, but also at the actions of their families, communities and governments.

Early pregnancy takes a toll on a girl’s health, education and rights. It also prevents her from realizing her potential and adversely impacts the baby. A country’s economy is also affected by teenage pregnancies as adolescent mothers are prevented from entering the workforce.

In Kenya, for example, if the more than 200,000 teenage mothers had been employed instead of becoming pregnant, $3.4 billion could have been added to the economy. Similarly, if girls in Brazil and India had been able to wait until their early 20s to give birth, the countries would have greater economic productivity equal to more than $3.5 billion and $7.7 billion, respectively.

The report notes that countries must not only increase efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies, they must also invest more in girls as the currently the global community directs less than two cents of every dollar spent on international development to adolescent girls.

In addition to funding, the report stresses that to tackle teenage pregnancy, countries must adopt a holistic approach which does not dwell on changing girls’ behaviour, but seeks to change attitudes in society so girls are encouraged to stay in school, child marriage is banned, girls have access to sexual and reproductive health including contraception, and young mothers have better support systems.

“We must reflect on and urge changes to the policies and norms of families, communities and governments that often leave a girl with no other choice, but a path to early pregnancy,” said Osotimehin. “This is what we are doing at UNFPA and what we will continue to do and recommend until every girl is able to choose the direction of her life, own her future and achieve her greatest potential.”

While teenage pregnancy is a much bigger challenge in developing countries, the report also found that it is a significant issue in developed ones. In the United States for example, only about half of the girls who become pregnant as adolescents complete high school by 22, compared to nine out of 10 girls who do not become pregnant. It also harms the economy as a whole, with nearly $11 billion a year in costs to taxpayers in the country.

The inaugural International Day of the Girl Child was 11 October 2012, and for its first observance the United Nations focused on child marriage. A fundamental human rights violation, child marriage has an impact on all aspects of a girl’s life; the girl is denied of her childhood and education, her opportunities are limited, and the risk of violence and abuse escalates. As a result not only her future is jeopardized but also her immediate general health, as complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19.

As findings were presented during the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) revealed that more than 37,000 under-age girls are married every day. International efforts aiming at ending the practice were at the centre of the discussion moderated by the United States National Broadcasting Company’s Ann Curry. Guest speakers, among other panellists, were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet.

Ms. Bachelet spoke of the vicious circle of gender inequality: “In the case of girls and women, they are seen as less valuable inside a society. Also, in many societies, girls are defined by marriage. Families link the future of the girl to the possibility of her being married because in that culture, that’s what gives women their identity.”

Ms. Gupta believes the power of culture and tradition can be altered by the right laws; the first step is to have laws in place that maintain the minimum age of marriage as being 18. Other means to ending the harmful practice of child marriage lay in the implementation of economic measures. For example, by providing cash as an incentive to help girls stay unmarried, and study.

Dr. Osotimehin emphasized the need for national governments to focus on girls. The international community’s inability to place women and girls at the centre of development remain a major challenge. As he stated: “We can’t do boutique programmes; we have to take them to scale. We need national governments to take responsibility for this.”

“Reproductive health and rights are integral to sustainable development and poverty reduction. Investing in universal access to reproductive health is a crucial investment in healthy societies and a more sustainable future,” he added.

Observed annually on 11 July since 1989, World Population Day focuses attention on the importance of population issues in the context of development plans and programmes, and the need to find solutions for these issues.

“The world’s population has more than tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945, and keeps growing,” Mr. Ban noted. “With more than seven billion people now inhabiting the planet, we face ever greater demands on shared resources and significant challenges to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals.”

The theme for this year’s Day is ‘Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services,’ aimed at highlighting the essential part that reproductive health plays in creating a just and equitable world.

“Working for the survival and the well-being of women and girls is a human right imperative. And in order to take advantage of women’s full potential in the development of their nations, they must be able to plan their lives and families,” the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Babatunde Osotimehin, said in his message for the Day. “This is why the international community is determined to making universal access to reproductive health a priority.”

According to UNFPA, reproductive health problems remain the leading cause of ill health and death for women of childbearing age worldwide. Some 222 million women who would like to avoid or delay pregnancy lack access to effective family planning, while nearly 800 women die every day in the process of giving life.

Osotimehin said helping meet the needs of those 222 million women would help prevent 21 million unplanned births, and help prevent 79,000 maternal deaths and 1.1 million infant deaths.

In addition, he said that about 1.8 billion young people are entering their reproductive years, often without the knowledge, skills and services they need to protect themselves – and their needs and human rights must be urgently addressed.

“We also have to address the special needs of young people – particularly adolescent girls. Today, pregnancy and childbirth-related complications are the major cause of death among girls 10 to 19 years old in most developing countries, while the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections are among young people aged 15 to 24,” the UNFPA chief said.

He added that family planning is a basic human right, but “it remains meaningless unless individuals and couples have access to contraceptives, information and services to enable them to exercise that right.”

The report, entitled Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2010, shows that from 1990 to 2010, the annual number of maternal deaths dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000 – a decline of 47 per cent.

While substantial progress has been achieved in almost all regions, many countries – especially in sub-Saharan Africa – will fail to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing maternal deaths by 75 per cent from 1990 to 2015.

“I am very pleased to see that the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth continues to decline,” said Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which released the report along with the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank. “This shows that the enhanced effort of countries, supported by UNFPA and other development partners, is paying off,” he added. “But we can’t stop here. Our work must continue to make every pregnancy wanted and every childbirth safe.”

According to a news release issued by the agencies, a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications every two minutes. The four most common causes are severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, and unsafe abortions.

Ninety-nine per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries; most could have been prevented with proven interventions.

“We know exactly what to do to prevent maternal deaths: improve access to voluntary family planning, invest in health workers with midwifery skills, and ensure access to emergency obstetric care when complications arise,” said Dr. Osotimehin.

The report shows that one-third of all maternal deaths occur in just two countries. In 2010, almost 20 per cent of deaths, or 56,000, were in India, and 14 per cent, or 40,000, were in Nigeria. Of the 40 countries with the world’s highest rates of maternal death, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Similarly, East Asia, which made the greatest progress in preventing maternal deaths, has a contraceptive prevalence rate of 84 per cent as opposed to only 22 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that has the highest rates of maternal death.

Ten countries have already reached the MDG target of a 75 per cent reduction in maternal death: Belarus, Bhutan, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Iran, Lithuania, Maldives, Nepal, Romania and Viet Nam.

There are a total of eight MDGs, ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. They form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions and have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.