Life Skills Education is part of the new government's 100 day road map pledged the Minister of Education at the ceremony to launch of the State of the World Population Report on the 8 December 2013. At the ceremony Dr Shiham stated that Motherhood in Childhood accentuates a huge problem which requires urgent national responses.
In Maldives people between 15 and 25 years make up 27% of the population. This age is when important life events such as the first sexual experience and the first marriage take place. Although Maldivian girls and boys are free to decide who to marry and when to start families, the lack of sexual health information and knowledge ill equips them for crucial life challenges.

At the same ceremony UNFPA launched the report "Reproductive Health Knowledge and Behaviour of Young Unmarried Women in the Maldives. In the report, Aisha retold the story that she was shocked at 16 when she found out about her first pregnancy. "I had my first boyfriend when I was 15 and after dating about a year I had my first sexual experience with him," Aisha recalled. Like many other Maldivian girls of her age most of her information and knowledge came from movies and story books. Without realizing the consequences of her choices at age 15, Aisha, now at 25, remains a single mother looking after a nine year old. After having her child, the dream of becoming a nurse was shattered. The qualitative research by UNFPA echoes similar experiences among Maldivian youth indicating the lack of reproductive health knowledge among young women in Maldives.

The research concludes that adolescent pregnancy is a big challenge in the Maldives. Government records showed 242 girls under 19 years gave birth in 2012. Although child marriage is not widespread and despite a minimum age of marriage defined by the Family Law (2001), there were 35 marriages registered in 2012 for children under 18. The economic impact of adolescent pregnancy is not calculated in Maldives but international experience show considerable economic benefit of investing in addressing the challenge of motherhood in childhood.

UNFPA will continue to support the Ministry of Education to integrate the Life Skills Education packages into the school curriculum to provide adequate knowledge to Maldivian youth as they grow up. These packages were developed in 2004 with UNFPA support and more that 1000 facilitators were trained then.

For more information or interview requests, please contact: 
Shadiya Ibrahim, Assistant Representative, UNFPA Maldives, 7924844

For the full report and other resources, please visit:
www.unfpa.org
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