Policy Brief - Unleashing aspirations while ensuring opportunities could help reduce teenage pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean - June 2024

Jul 19, 2026

Policy brief examining how adolescent girls’ aspirations and available opportunities interact to shape teenage pregnancy outcomes in Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights that girls aged 15–24 who are out of school and out of work are disproportionately affected, with teenage pregnancy a key predictor. Drawing on a framework paper, it links low aspirations to social norms, information gaps, and limited role models, and proposes interventions such as role models, vocational and life-skills training, and conditional cash transfers to address both aspiration traps and opportunity shortfalls.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Key Messages

Context

Study Description

The Evidence

Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disc losure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Policy Brief Unleashing aspirations while ensuring opportunities could help reduce teenage pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean June 2024 Photo: [Female librarian helping to find a book by AzmanJaka via canva.com](Female librarian helping to find a book by AzmanJaka via canva.com) KEY MESSAGES Two-thirds of youth aged 15-24 out of school and out of work in Latin America and the Caribbean are girls , mainly because the region has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world. There is empirical evidence that teenage pregnancy is linked to girls’ low aspirations , which are shaped by lack of role models , information , and confidence due to social norms. Policy interventions can help boost adolescent girls’aspirations and opportunities through exposure to role models , vocational training including life skills training , and conditional cash transfers. CONTEXT Teen pregnancies are common in Latin America and the Caribbean and pose risks for the mother and her future family. Though it has fallen, the region has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the world (55 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19), after Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank 2023a)( Figure 1) . Teenage pregnancy poses risk of health complications and can lead to lower educational achievement and fewer job opportunities (Azevedo et al. 2012; The Economist 2019; World Bank 2023a) . Indeed, young women are more likely to be out of school and to be jobless than men. Two thirds of the region’s youth (aged 15-24) out of school and out of work are women, a quarter of all women of this age (16 percent for men) (de Hoyos, Rogers, and Székely 2016; World Bank 2023b) . [1] The most important predictor for young women to be in that situation is teenage pregnancy (World Bank 2023a) .[2] Teenage girls’ low aspirations can be both a cause and a consequence of their early pregnancy. Aspirations are people’s ideals for the future, including their education level, type of job, wealth, family, and social status, all of which are shaped by their circumstances and social environment ( Ray 2006; Genicot and Ray 2020; Fruttero, Muller, and Calvo-González 2024) . Aspirations can be motivating life goals. However, they can also be limited prospects that lead to missed opportunities, especially in the context of poverty ( Ray 2006; Dalton, G hosal, and Mani 2016) . With low aspirations and no clear foreseeable opportunities, teenage girls can think of getting pregnant as a relatively appealing outcome (Azevedo et al. 2012) . Further, dropping out of school and being jobless can reduce adolescent mothers’ aspirations. Figure 1. Teenage pregnancy in Latin America is falling but stubbornly high Average birth per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in five regions, 2000-21 Source: United Nations Population Division , World Population Prospects. [1] 15-to 24-year-old who are out of school and out of work are referred to as “ NEET”: Not in Education , Employment , nor Training. [2] In 2010 , 20 percent of NEET girls in Latin America and the Caribbean had started their own household with children , compared to only 1 percent in the case of NEET boys (de Hoyos , Rogers , and Popova 2015) . In 2019 , 70 percent of NEET girls compared to 10 percent of NEET boys were responsible for household care work (World Bank 2022) . STUDY DESCRIPTION A framework paper ( Muller et al. 2024), supported by the Latin America and the Caribbean Gender Innovation Lab ( LACGIL), presents a framework to foster aspirations, while ensuring that opportunities are in place to accomplish them, offering a tool for policymakers and researchers to diagnose situations and design policy interventions. Aspirations are linked to a range of educational, employment, and business outcomes ( Fruttero, Muller, and Calvo-González 2024), but high aspirations without the opportunities to achieve them can b

FAQs

为什么拉丁美洲和加勒比的青少女怀孕问题仍然严峻？

因为该地区青少年中有较高比例的15-19岁女孩发生怀孕，同时15-24岁既不在教育也不在就业培训（NEET）的青年群体中，女性占比更高。

低抱负（aspirations）如何与青少女怀孕相关？

低抱负既可能是早孕的原因，也可能是结果。它受到缺乏榜样、信息与自信等社会规范因素影响，并可能在贫困情境下使怀孕看起来更具吸引力。

文件提出哪些政策干预来提升抱负并创造机会？

通过让女孩接触榜样、提供职业培训（含生活技能培训），以及实施有条件的现金转移支付等方式，同时强调同时处理“抱负”与“机会”以避免不利情景。

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Ava Thompson