Commitment title:

Accelerated and effective actions to improve the health of adolescents and young people in Colombia

Commitment description:

This commitment is part of the National Development Plan 2018–2022. It focuses on implementing a strategy to prevent adolescent pregnancy in rural areas, to accelerate the decline in the fertility rate among girls aged 10–14 years, and among adolescent women aged 15–19 years, in order to close the gap between urban and rural areas. One strategic axis is access to information and education on sexual and reproductive rights, for the decision-making and empowerment of girls and adolescents, as well as increasing effective access to long-term contraceptive methods and reducing unmet needs for contraception, as well as the combined prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS. A specific objective is to ensure that adolescents and young people have access to high-quality health care services that provide differentiated and empathetic care, including them in the evaluation of these services and formulating improvement measures aimed at facilitating access and responding to their needs. Currently, with the support of PAHO and WHO, more than 100 health service providers are piloting the implementation of the global standards tool to improve the quality of adolescent health services. Our goals: 1) Decrease the specific fertility rate for adolescents aged 10–14 years to 2 births (per 1,000 women aged 10–14 years), by 2022. Baseline: 2.6 (2017). 2) Decrease the specific fertility rate for adolescents aged 15–19 years to 56 births (per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years), by 2022. Baseline: 61 (2017). 3. Reduce the number of subsequent pregnancies in women aged 15–19 years to 14 per cent, by 2022. Baseline: 19 per cent (2017).

Mode of engagement:
  • Programmatic action
    Calidad en los servicios de salud para adolescentes y jovenes, y estrategias efectivas para reducir la fecundidad adolescente, y otros eventos que afectan a esta poblacion.
Commitment to be actioned in: Colombia
Submitted from: Colombia
Submitted by
Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social
Thematic area
Achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health as a part of universal health coverage (UHC)
Commitment category

(4) Access for all adolescents and youth, especially girls, to comprehensive and age-responsive information, education and adolescent-friendly comprehensive, quality and timely services to be able to make free and informed decisions and choices about their sexuality and reproductive lives, to adequately protect themselves from unintended pregnancies, all forms of sexual and  gender-based violence and harmful practices, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, to facilitate a safe transition into adulthood.