Published on: February 22, 2023
By Consuelo Alarcon
TACLOBAN CITY (PIA) – The Korean government through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the United Nations and officials of the Philippines' Department of Health jointly launched on Monday, February 20, a program that aims to address the high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Eastern Visayas.
The joint program, “Accelerating the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy in Southern Leyte and Samar in the Philippines,” is funded by the Republic of Korea and the United Nations agencies such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Said program will be implemented in the provinces of Southern Leyte and Samar as pilot areas starting this year until 2026.
“KOICA firmly believes that the joint efforts of both the UN agencies and the Philippine government through this project can create a crucial and positive impact to the protection and reproductive health of Filipino adolescents,” KOICA Philippines Country Director Kim Eunsub said during the launching of the program.
With the implementation of this program, Eunsub expects that the number of adolescent pregnancies in the island of Samar and Southern Leyte province will be reduced.
DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire expressed her commitment to work closely with the development partners, other national government agencies, the local governments of Samar and Southern Leyte, by providing support towards the successful implementation of the project.
“We are confident that this project will be of great benefit to the Filipino people and will uphold the goals of the Universal Health Care in the context of equitable access to health services, targeting adolescents specifically the vulnerable and the marginalized,” Vergerie said.
The project will focus in the two provinces because of the geographic disadvantage of the said areas and lesser access to facilities as compared to other provinces, but this will be expanded as soon as DOH will get to analyze the impact of this intervention.
“This is a revolving project. We are constantly going to evaluate so that we can improve on it and be able to have that kind of model that can be adapted to other regions,” Vergerie said
UN Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez expects that this is going to be a growing program.
“I am sure that very shortly we will hear from the local authorities the preliminary results of this investment and we will see based on the lessons learned, and the possibility of expansion that should be in line with the Philippine Development Program,” UN Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.
Aside from the P490 million grant from KOICA, the UN agencies also extended a US$1M as counterpart in the implementation of the program.
Meanwhile, despite the decline of teenage pregnancy cases among women aged 15-19 years old in Eastern Visayas from 6.9% in 2017 to 4.9% in 2022, Regional Director Elnora Pulma of the Commission on Population still considered the 4.9% as a high percentage rate. (MMP/CBA/PIA-8)
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