The world's population has more than tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945, and keeps growing. With more than 7 billion people now inhabiting the planet, we face ever greater demands on shared resources and significant challenges to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals.

There are over 600 million girls in the world today, more than 500 million of them in developing countries. They are shaping humanity's present and future. The opportunities and choices girls have during adolescence will enable them to begin adulthood as empowered, active citizens.

With the right skills and opportunities, they can invest in themselves, in their families and their communities. However, pregnancy jeopardizes the rights, health, education and potential of far too many adolescent girls, robbing them of a better future.

As a staunch advocate of the education, health and rights of girls and an enduring believer in the power of young women to transform our world, I welcome the focus of this year's World Population Day on adolescent pregnancy. This sensitive topic demands global attention.

BANGKOK (UNESCAP), 16 September 2013 - More than 400 delegates, including one Head of State, Ministers, policy makers and civil society representatives from 47 countries are in Bangkok this week to attend the Sixth Asian and Pacific Population Conference (APPC).

They will review population and development challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region, including the unprecedented pace of population ageing, migration, and urbanization and changing household and family structures.

On the first anniversary of Nepal's devastating April 2015 earthquake, UNFPA Nepal Representative Giulia Vallese reflects on the lessons learnt from the disaster.

Read her Huffington Post op-ed article at : http://huff.to/26nkYef 

BANGKOK (ESCAP and UNFPA) -- A regional ministerial conference of Asian and Pacific governments has issued a strong reaffirmation that gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights are indispensable to sustainable development, and must be a key part of the post-2015 development framework.

As world leaders reviewed progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the United Nations General Assembly last month, some observers and development experts rightly reminded us that we still have a long way to go. This is particularly true for efforts to save women's and girls' lives and to fulfill their reproductive rights -- the aim of MDG 5 on maternal and reproductive health.

Last week routine services for early diagnosis of cervical cancer became available for Maldivian women. Maryam, a 36 year old mother of two, was voluntarily screened when health care workers in Male' were trained. Her decision to take part in the training program was lifesaving. Maryam was one of the three women turned positive out of the 88 who participated in the pilot screening program.

Life Skills Education is part of the new government's 100 day road map pledged the Minister of Education at the ceremony to launch of the State of the World Population Report on the 8 December 2013. At the ceremony Dr Shiham stated that Motherhood in Childhood accentuates a huge problem which requires urgent national responses.