First Ladies Round Table on Adolescent Pregnancy in the Caribbean

Address by Her Excellency, Sandra Granger, First Lady of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana
Belize City, Belize
25 June 2015
Good morning.
Your Excellency, Madam Kim Simplis Barrow, Spouse of His Excellency the Prime Minister of Belize
and Special Envoy for Women and Children; Your Excellency Mrs. Reema Carmona, Spouse of His
Excellency the President of Trinidad and Tobago; Senator The Honourable Sandrea May Falconer,
Minister of Information and Gender Affairs and representative of the Hon. Prime Minister of Jamaica;
Ms. Sheila Roseau, Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sub-Regional Office for
the Caribbean; Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
First, I wish to express my gratitude to Her Excellency Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow, First Lady of Belize
and Special Envoy for Women and Children, and to Ms. Sheila Roseau, Director of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean for their kind invitation to me to
participate in the discussion on an issue which, I believe, is of vital social and economic importance to
our Region.
You are aware that in the Latin America and Caribbean region, the fertility rate for adolescents is second
only to that of sub-Saharan Africa. You are aware that a number of our girl children have their first
pregnancy under the age of ten years, and many in the 15-19 years old cohort have their first child before
the age of 19. The impact that this has on the well-being of our girl children, as well as on our social and
economic system is deleterious, for often these girls drop out of the education system, become
unemployed or unemployable, or, if they gain employment, it is of the most menial kind, so they are
thereby doomed to scrabble out an existence. Further, they do not acquire parenting skills, and often the
cycle of early pregnancy continues in their girl children.
I know I am preaching to the converted, so I will not bore you with facts of which you are already aware,
nor will I belabour the point that adolescent pregnancy not only harms the growth and development of our
girl children; it harms the growth and development of our countries and we ignore its implications at our
peril.
I wish to report that there has been some activity in Guyana in respect of the provision of Adolescent
Friendly Health Services for adolescents in and out of school. During 2014, this programme aimed at
producing a healthier adolescent population through the increase of access to, and availability of
information and services on sexual and reproductive health, reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy
and sexually transmitted infections, and creating an enabling environment in which adolescents and
young adults could make healthy choices. The programme also focussed on school health, peer education
and gender-based violence. However, this programme appears not to have been conducted in all of the
ten administrative regions of the country and seems to have been constrained by lack of human and
financial resources.
During 2015, it is projected that there will be a teen pregnancy media campaign, and there will be further
activities relating to the provision of adolescent-friendly services including:
- training in adolescent sexual and reproductive health for primary health care service providers;
- training of community resource personnel;
- development of standards for adolescent health services; and
- a review of the Adolescent Health and Wellness Strategy.
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In addition, it is anticipated that training will be provided for peer educators and work will be undertaken
with youth faith-based organisations and physically challenged youth.
As regards information relating to adolescent pregnancy for the period 2009 to 2014, the data from the
Guyana Ministry of Health (Primary Health Care Reports, 2015) were separated into two categories
under 15 years and 15-19 years. They reveal that pregnancies for children under 15 years declined from
250 in 2009 to 88 in 2014. In the 15-19 years group, pregnancies declined slightly, from 3352 in 2009,
rising to 3480 in 2013 and declining in 2014 to 3245. It should be noted that the data for 2014 are
preliminary.
As I was preparing for this Round Table, I was struck by a number of things related to the issue of
Adolescent Pregnancy in the Caribbean.
(1). It is difficult, if not impossible to locate disaggregated data on adolescent pregnancy. If we
are to address adolescent pregnancy in a meaningful manner, we must gather and analyse information on
the age at which the adolescent first became pregnant, the circumstances under which this occurred; the
social and economic status of the adolescent and the parents of the minor, including the level of education
of the child's parent(s) and factors which may have led to sexual activity; the geographic area in which
the child resides, and so on. Even looking at this issue across the board, I was struck by the fact that data
were not available for some of the countries.
(2). The issue of adolescent pregnancy seems to be taken for granted. In my own country not so
long ago, there was a glowing report in the local media about a fourteen-year-old girl who had given birth
to twins, and the story focussed on the fact that the babies were fine, and disregarded the fact that a minor
had given birth. Public reaction to the story led to investigation and the discovery that the child had been
abused by a male relative. Not too long after that, there was a fifteen-year-old who reported to her teacher
that she was not feeling well and she had a growth which was beginning to move inside her. The teacher
took her to the doctor and it was discovered that the child was pregnant. This was another case of a male
relative raping a girl child.
(3). The age of consent varies across the CARICOM region. Current legislation also
varies relating to whether or not the perpetrator knew the child had attained the age of consent.
I wish to urge that as we prepare for the next round of regional censuses, the methodology be changed to
facilitate the collection of data on adolescent pregnancy in the Caribbean, with the data disaggregated to
show the incidence of pregnancy for girl children under 10, 10-15 and 15-19 years old, so that we may
have a clearer idea of the age at which some children have their first sexual contact, and the
circumstances under which this occurs.
Second, measures should be put in place to assist girls who have become pregnant to resume their
education. We therefore need to reform our education system to facilitate their re-integration after
pregnancy and to also assist them in developing parenting skills. This will not only boost their self-esteem
but they will be less likely to become pregnant again quickly and will desire their children to be
educated. They should be given opportunities to develop themselves academically or through technical
and vocational education.
Third, Legislation should be enacted and implemented in Member States defining the minimum age of
consent, so that any persons engaging in sexual activity with a person under that age is charged with
statutory rape, regardless of whether the act was done with or without the consent of the child or
adolescent. In addition, the law must not define rape only as vaginal penetration, as it does in some cases,
but be broadened to include any sexual molestation of the child.

Fourth, there must be less squeamishness on the part of officials in implementing programmes for
adolescents on sexual and reproductive health. If children are going to be sexually active, we can only
protect them by giving them the best possible knowledge and advice on this issue. In this context our
schools curricula must be reformed to ensure that our girls - and boys - are educated on issues relating to
sexual and reproductive health. Efforts should also be made to ensure that both parents and teachers are
involved in this process. In Guyana, this could be part of media campaign planned for 2015 and could
help to break the cycle of adolescent pregnancy.
Through these and other measures proposed in the Integrated Strategic Framework, we should, with
concerted effort, achieve the goals of the UN Millennium Development Goals identified in that document,
which was agreed by the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development.
Thank you.