World Development Report 2007 Strong on Youth Reproductive Health

Main Notes on YRH Policy

The World Bank’s 2007 World Development Report (WDR) includes a generally solid reiteration of the state of knowledge of youth reproductive health interventions, with great potential as an advocacy tool for moving governments in the right direction on all things youth. The WDR makes a good case for countries investing in young people as a way to reap the demographic dividend of falling dependency rates. This can be powerful stuff for a finance minister.

The report frames youth interventions within three “lenses”: broadening opportunities for young people to develop skills; helping them acquire capabilities to make good decisions; and offering them second chances to recover from “bad decisions,” made by either themselves or others. To my eye, this framework corresponds roughly to influential models in the youth reproductive health field, for example, WHO’s Programming for Adolescent Health and Development (8.0MB) and the Focus on Young Adults (1.9MB) model.

The WDR 2007 mostly gets it right in terms of the recommended youth RH interventions, and deals with relatively ignored topics such as early marriage and male involvement.

I’m curious to know whether anyone has used the WDR in policy discussions or formulation. With the World Bank stamp of approval on the youth issue, the possibilities seemingly abound for using the report as a springboard for policy dialogue and advocacy at the country level. Let us know.