The Pretense of Inclusion: Contextualizing Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies in Lived Realities of Indigenous Youth
Present and Accounted For
Stories from Chiapas, Mexico
To address the unique challenges indigenous youth face, including cultural and language barriers as well as social stigma around youth and sexuality, the Observatorio de Mortalidad Materna (OMM), supported by PAI, engaged with the government and civil society stakeholder group implementing the national strategy to advocate for the inclusion of culturally relevant policies for indigenous adolescents and youth.
The overall success of the family planning program in Mexico hides steep disparities for two key groups—young people and indigenous populations. In Chiapas, these disparities are heightened, given the large proportion of indigenous adolescents and youth. Inequality undermines universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and progress requires a multipronged, sustained advocacy approach. With one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, Mexico established the National Strategy for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention in 2015. Specifically related to quality and access, the strategy contains several key provisions, including updating counseling protocols to ensure adolescent and youth-friendly family planning services, training for providers to guarantee technical competence and securing sufficient budget allocation for contraceptive supplies for adolescents and youth.
