Can youth-centred sexual and reproductive health self-care and contraceptive innovation address unintended pregnancy among girls and young women? Some reflections from Asia and the Pacific

In 2020, in Asia and the Pacific, nearly one billion young people aged 10–24 years—60% of the world’s young people 1—were experiencing, or soon to be transitioning through, key life experiences (sexual debut, intimate relationships, having children, marriage) and complex physical, neurocognitive and social transitions that occur during adolescence. Across this diverse region, there are substantial challenges related to the provision and access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for girls and young women in ways that are responsive to their needs. This is evidenced by the high prevalence of unintended pregnancy, increasing adolescent fertility rates and the high unmet need for SRH services and modern contraceptives because of limited access to information and education, health services and financial resources1 (see Box 1). In qualitative studies,2 adolescent girls described social and service-based barriers inhibiting their access to modern contraception. Such SRH inequities are compounded by international global shortages of health workers and a tendency to exclude adolescent SRH services from universal health coverage programmes regionally.