Youth Leaders, Youth Advocates, and Youth-Serving Organizations
Call for the Passage of SB 1979 Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2023, during the 3rd National Conference on Family Planning – Youth Conference 2024
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September 19, 2024
Quezon City – September 19, 2024. The Commission on Population and Development, and The Forum for Family Planning and Development have co-convened the 3rd NCFP – Youth Conference 2024, in partnership with various organizations, held on September 17-18, 2024 in Quezon City. Participated by at least 180 youth-serving organizations, youth leaders, and advocates from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
At the youth conference, youth-serving organizations, youth leaders, and advocates called upon our legislators to vote YES for young people’s future by supporting Senate Bill No. 1979, also known as the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2023.
The attendees assert that Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is critical to empowering us (the youth) with knowledge about our bodies, rights, and safety. Likewise, CSE helps us set boundaries, understand consent, and protect ourselves from harm.
Kevin L. de Vera, 3rd NCFP-Youth Conference Chairperson and who has been working on CSE training since 2015, has shared, “I have met a lot of teachers from different provinces as a trainer on CSE and communicating adolescent reproductive health, and one consistently shared experience of our teachers is that they recognize their role to the reproductive health and wellbeing of their students. Many teachers are aware that their students are already engaging in intimate relationships and fear that may result in untoward incidents such as early pregnancy.”
The conference agenda includes research, documented programs and initiatives, and stories on youth and adolescents. Three in every ten 15-24-year-olds already had sexual experience; two in every ten had already engaged in pre-marital sex.
“Reality is, data are telling us that young people are already doing it, and the fears of our teacher are also real. Ironically, despite our teachers' willingness to provide CSE, they admit that they need training and resource materials,” de Vera added.
The sharing of information during the conference also attested to the need to empower the community to advance the reproductive health of our young people. The 2021 Young Adults Fertility Survey (YAFS) revealed that if young people were to consult someone about sex, seven out of ten of them would want to talk to friends and family.
“Equitable access to services and information is more than just a health issue—it’s about young people’s future so that they can protect themselves. Going around many different communities, parents would prefer to be the ones to help their adolescent children to learn about sex and sexuality, but they admit that they are not comfortable doing so,” de Vera further explained. The parents themselves need sources of information to do so, and SB 1979 can fulfill these aspirations of parents to help their children with their CSE information needs.
Features of SB 1979 can ensure support for our teachers and community members.
The Youth Gathering affirmed, "We can’t let outdated beliefs and fear hold us back from opportunities, from education, from becoming the best versions of ourselves. We have the right to decide our own futures, and that includes when and how we start families—or whether we choose to at all.” – excerpts of the Manifesto of Support of the Passage of Senate Bill 1979.
About the 3rd National Conference on Family Planning – Youth Conference
The National Family Planning Conference, first initiated in 2016, is the country’s biggest non-medical conference on family planning. At it, we discuss the country's health, population, and social development issues and critically evaluate policies, practices, data, and documented stories related to sexual and reproductive health across different population groups.
It is important to hold the 3rd NCFP to examine the country’s progress on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) Agenda, and the status of implementing the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law.
This is aimed to provide a national platform to discuss why family planning remains important in continuous demographic change and its implications (e.g., why FP matters even if the country’s fertility rates continue to decline). Likewise, to look into innovations and technologies around Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and family planning that can help accelerate progress and, ultimately, renew partnerships and commitments to foster collaborations towards attaining the 2030 SDG Agenda and the goals of the Philippine Development Plan.
Dr. Corazon Raymundo, President of The Forum for Family Planning and Development and a Demographer, highlighted that in the Philippine context, we are at a critical juncture. We have a young population—a window of opportunity. But this will not last forever. She shared “Without effective family planning and development programs, the potential for growth and development could turn into a burden on our society.”
“Rapid population growth, if left unchecked, will strain our healthcare systems, education, and employment opportunities, pushing many young people into cycles of poverty. The stakes are high, which is why the urgency of the matter cannot be overstated,” she added, as she pressed on the importance of Senate Bill 1979 Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2023, in her keynote message.
USec. Lisa Grace Bersales, the Executive Director of the Commission on Population and Development, emphasized: “Family planning and sexuality is always a difficult topic to address - like you (while addressing the youth attendees), I was also young once, and I know it is critical to have correct information on a correct platform for well-informed decisions and choices.”
The convenors value the Youth Conference as one of the rare opportunities to bring together youth leaders, advocates, and experts from various sectors to share knowledge and collaborate for a future in which our young people have all the information and services they need on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and are empowered to make smart and healthy choices.
“This gathering emphasizes the need for innovation, collaboration, and urgency as we tackle the challenges they (youth) face in making informed decisions about their (young people) sexual and reproductive health (SRH),” Usec. Bersales added.
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Contact person:
Kevin de Vera
Chairperson, NCFP – Youth Conference 2024
Director, The Forum for Family Planning and Development
kebs.dv@gmail.com
forumforfp@gmail.com
09477084839
Convenors:
The Forum for Family Planning and Development
Commission on Population and Development
Co-organizers and development partners:
Likhaan Center for Women’s Health
FP2030
Y-PEER Pilipinas
University of the Philippines Population Institute
Philippine Society of Sexual and Reproductive Health Nurses
Family Planning Organization of the Philippines
Reproductive Health Advocacy Network
Filipino Freethinkers
Youth-Led AYSRHR Global Roadmap for Action (GRA)
DKT Philippines Foundation & TRUST Reproductive Health Choices
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University of the Philippines Population Institute (2024, September 17). National landscape of youth population, family planning, and sexual and reproductive health:
Selected YAFS5 findings [PowerPoint slides]. Population Institute, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines.