The Nerds, the Cool and the Central: Peer Education and Teen Pregnancy in Brazil

Key messages:
Teenage pregnancy rates in Brazil are amongst the highest in Latin America.
Significant evidence associates teenage pregnancy with school dropout, lower educational outcomes, poor maternal and infant health, and higher poverty rates.
In Brazil, pregnancy during childhood is associated with a 400 percent increase in the female dropout rate.
In Salvador, a peer-led intervention focused on sexual and reproductive health and students’ aspirations at public high schools resulted in significantly improved contraceptive use and decreased teenage pregnancy rates.
The program was most effective when relying on measures of the school network to select the students who would perform the interventions.