Background: Accessible sexual, reproductive, and mental healthcare services are crucial for adolescent health and wellbeing.

Nearly half of the world's population, some 3 billion people, is under the age of 25.

Objectives: To describe the sexual and reproductive behaviour of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly 15- to 19-year-olds.

Despite decades of investment in HIV prevention, a large and vulnerable population—that of adolescent girls—remains invisible, underserved, and at disproportionate risk of HIV.

Providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in schools is a cost-effective way of reaching young people because the majority of adolescents are enrolled in school.

This report focuses on the gender dimensions of HIV-related stigma. It aims to fill a gap and advance a more nuanced understanding and more effective advocacy on how stigma affects women and girls living with HIV more, less or differently to men and boys.

The number of young people with perinatally acquired HIV is growing significantly. With antiretroviral drugs, children who get infected at birth with HIV have an opportunity to graduate into adolescence and adulthood.

One in every three girls in the developing world is married by the age of 18. One in seven marries before they reach the age of 15. In countries like Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea and the Central African Republic (CAR), the rate of early and forced marriage is 60 per cent and over.

This publication is part of a larger IPPF initiative called Girls Decide. The initiative aims to ensure that girls’ and young women’s sexuality and pregnancy-related issues are effectively addressed by leaders and service providers.

The international community has repeatedly recognized the importance of achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health, with reinvigorated efforts in 2010.