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This policy brief highlights research results from the Middle East and North Africa region concerning young people’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Whilst young people’s experiences related to marriage and childbearing vary greatly across the region, they share a need for more and better information about sexual and reproductive health. The brief discusses barriers to SRH information and services including cultural taboos and young women’s lack of mobility and decision making power, and draws attention to opportunities to provide young people with correct information about SRH in schools.

The brief concludes that while some countries have taken pioneering steps in reaching out to young people to address their needs, the region as a whole lacks the political commitment and institutional capacity to do so. Policy makers are often reluctant to enact policies and programmes to protect young people’s sexual and reproductive health, because youth sexuality is a sensitive topic and many societies pay insufficient attention to the rights of young people. The authors recommend that governments need to enact policies and programmes that would: provide comprehensive sexuality education in schools; find ways to reach out-of-school youth who may be vulnerable to SRH risks; ensure the confidentiality of HIV testing; and integrate sexual and reproductive health services for young people into existing primary health care services.

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