Today?s adolescents and youth face substantial physical, social, legal, and economic barriers to meeting their SRH potential. Key factors underlying these issues are a lack of adolescent SRH (ASRH) policies and access to accessible, affordable, and appropriate health services. The impact that...

Malawi has made great progress in improving maternal and child health (MCH). Under-five mortality declined from 244 to 71 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2012, and maternal mortality declined from 1,100 to 510 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births between 1990 and 2013. This note...

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) is one of five areas of focus of the World Bank's Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010-2015 (RHAP), which recognizes the importance of addressing ASRH as a development issue with important implications for poverty reduction. Delaying childbearing...

Despite international support for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights (SRHR) (for example, the 1994 International Conference on Population in Development), young people consistently face high levels of unmet need for contraception, unplanned pregnancies, unsafe...

Nepal has achieved its targets for MDGs 4 and 5a. Maternal mortality declined from 790 to an estimated 190 deaths per 100,000 live births between 1990 and 2013 an impressive 76 percent decline. Under-five mortality showed a similarly impressive decline going from 142 to 42 deaths per 1,000...

Bolivia is a lower-middle income country, but one of the poorest in South America, with a per capita GNI of US$ 5,750 in 2013 and an average GNI growth rate of 4.4 percent during the last ten years. Nearly 36 percent of its population of 10.6 million (2013) are aged 0 to 14 years and one third...

Egypt is a lower-middle-income country with a GNI per capita (PPP) of US$ 5,654 in 2012. Since the Arab Spring, Egypt?s economic growth has slowed to 0.6 percent in 2012. Half of Egypt?s 82.54 million people live in rural areas. Poverty is concentrated in Upper Egypt (the southern region). As of...