UN Eswatini Resident Coordinator remarks at "Let’s Talk” campaign launch

United Nations Resident Coordinator, Ms. Nathalie Ndongo-Seh

[as prepared for delivery]

Manzini Regional Administrator, His Royal Highness Prince Gija

Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Themba Masuku

Minister of Education and Training, Hon. Lady Howard-Mabuza

Director, CANGO

Director, Eswatini Church Forum

UN Colleagues

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning to you all.

It is with humility and great pleasure that I join you today at the launch of the “Let’s Talk” campaign on Early and Unintended Pregnancy (EUP).

On behalf of the UN family, I wish to thank you for your kind invitation and for the opportunity to be part of this milestone development in addressing and responding to the issues affecting adolescent girls in the Kingdom.

Eswatini has a very youthful population, with about 34% of the population aged between 10 - 24 years, which translates to over 400,000 young EmaSwati.

Teenage pregnancy is a major challenge for our young girls in Eswatini. Currently the adolescent birth rate in the country stands at 87 per 1000 adolescents, and teenage pregnancy is one of the main factors contributing to school dropouts in the country.

Related to early and unintended pregnancies is early sexual activity, with the median first sex age at 16 years for girls and 18 years for boys.   While maternal mortality ratio continues to be as high as 452/100 000 live births, current adolescent birth rate is twice that figure at 87/1000).

Young girls and women also continue to bear a higher risk of exposure to HIV .The statistics shows that too many adolescent girls are still engaging in sexual risk behaviours that contribute to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV infection. Indeed, young girls account for 40 per cent of all new HIV infections.

Young people in Eswatini experience very high levels of violence, again disproportionately affecting girls compared to boys.   The national estimate is that 1 in 3 women have experienced some form of sexual violence by the time they were 18 years.

The rural, less educated, impoverished girls and young women are the most ones left behind. This is evident in the Family Planning Unmet need, which is highest among women with no education (no education is 22.4, primary is 18.7, secondary 16.7, high school 11.9, tertiary is 6); on the other hand, impoverished girls have a higher adolescent birth rates than other women (impoverished is 121 vs richest at 47). Teenage pregnancy is the leading cause for school drop-out.

To achieve gender equality and empower women and girls, World Leaders agreed to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriages as part of Goal 5 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With only 10 years left to achieve the SDGs by 2030, last week, the UN Secretary- General, Mr. Antonio Guterres launched the “Decade of Action” campaign, which marks the beginning of accelerated efforts to achieve the Agenda 2030 targets, including on gender equality. The UNChief has also launched a global people’s debate which is going to be a series of dialogues by people everywhere to mark the 75th anniversary of the global organization.

We therefore commend the Government of Eswatini, led on this initiative by the Deputy Prime Minister in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training, for bringing us all together as stakeholders to begin a discussion and dialogue around these issues. We all need to stand up against adolescent pregnancy in Eswatini.

While we appreciate the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2018, we shall continue to advocate for the harmonization of all related legislation, the enactment of accompanying bills where so required ,and work with communities and traditional leaders to promote practices that seek the best interest of the girl child, and ensure that schools are in gender-safe environments.

We commend the work done by youth-friendly centres where young people have access to basic education on their sexuality, as well as the work done to ensure the teaching and inclusion of sex education in school curriculum. We also commend the work of the Eswatini Church Forum, which has ensured that even places of worship now promote sex education. We need more of these interventions.

For many years, the UN family in Eswatini, through UNFPA, UNESCO and UNICEF in particular, has been working  with the Government and civil society to increase the national capacity to design and implement school-based and out-of-school /community-based comprehensive sexuality education programmes that promote human rights and gender equality.

The UN collaborated with a wide range of partners in supporting policy and legislative development and in mounting a strong advocacy programme in support of the enactment of the SODV Act.

In 2018-2019, the UN System in Eswatini committed close to 1 million USD in programmes and activities in support of the SODV Act.  These include the review and the implementation of key country strategic documents such as the National Gender Policy; the National Strategy to End Violence (2017-2022); National Guidelines for Multi-Sectoral Response to Gender Based Violence Eswatini; Guidelines for Health Sector Response to Sexual violence –Clinical Management 2018, among others. Other interventions include building institutional capacity for case management to ensure successful prosecution.

As a trusted partner of the people and the Government of Eswatini, the UN is committed to supporting the Government in ending all forms of violence against women, girls and children in Eswatini.

Let’s put all our efforts together. Let’s talk about how we can put an end to early and unintended pregnancy in the Kingdom of Eswatini…but more importantly, let’s make it happen!

I thank you.