Port-au-Prince, 12 July 2016--- Hundreds of teenagers and young people took part in the official celebration, in Haiti, of the World Population Day on the theme of investing in adolescent girls.

Several Government officials, including the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, Aviol Fleurant, the Minister for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights, Marie Denise Claude, the Secretary of State for Population, Guy Gérard Georges, as well as the Representative of UNFPA for Haiti, Marielle Sander, attended this day.

These officials had the opportunity to follow the comments, considerations and proposals of adolescents and young people, through the viewing of several movies featuring them.

An adolescent girl, member of the Network of Haitian Young Parliamentarians made an impassioned plea for Haitian youth. ¨To build a stronger Haiti, more peaceful and more prosperous, the youth must be at the heart of concerns and be the center of interest that crystallizes the attention of the whole nation, hammered Bianca Saint Jean.

The Secretary of State for Population, Guy Gérard Georges, very receptive to Bianca speech, promised an update of the national population policy document, as part of efforts to improve young people's living conditions, with consistent investments  in their favor.

The UNFPA Representative for Haiti, for her part, recalled that the investment in adolescent girls and young women was a choice, socially and economically, smart.

Every dollar invested in youth development in the Caribbean region has a yield of 12.7% per additional year at school. The benefit is even higher for adolescent girls with access to secondary education, said Marielle Sander.

Abundant in the same direction, the Minister for Women´s Status and Women´s Rights, Marie Denise Claude, has advocated for the inclusion of the teens in public policy and in all spheres of society.

The celebration of World Population Day, 2016 edition, in Haiti, took place under the auspices of the Secretariat of State for Population, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Volunteers Programme and MINUSTAH. It aimed to promote investment in youth and adolescents, especially girls from 10 to 19 years, so that they can realize their potential.

More than 1.2 billion people in the world are teenagers aged between 10 and 19 years, the next generation parents, and 88% live in developing countries.

In Haiti, the 10-19 years represent 21.7% of the population. In this crucial phase of their lives, they need to be put in situation to fulfill their potential and to have a prosperous, healthy and fulfilled life, the UN said

Particularly concerning adolescents, specific interventions are necessary to enable them to deal with some problems which prevent them from achieving their full potential. These obstacles include violence and rape, teenage pregnancy and teenage motherhood. Ultimately, it is the issue of setting conditions to improve their physical, economic and social well-being.