Health

Existing evidences show that the major sexual and reproductive health problems of adolescents and youth in Ethiopia include risky sexual practices, child marriage, early child bearing, unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion and its complications and STIs including HIV.
Use of and addiction to narcotic or psychotropic substances affects an individual’s health and psychosocial behaviors. In Ethiopia, addictive substances such as Khat, tobacco and alcohol are widely used by adolescents and youth.

Education

The Life Skills program is a comprehensive behavior change approach that concentrates on the development of the skills needed for life such as communication, decision–making, thinking, managing emotions, assertiveness, self–esteem building, resisting peer pressure, and relationship skills. Additionally, it addresses the important related issues of empowering girls and guiding boys towards new values.

Ethiopia’s youth has the potential to play a significant role in the country’s socio-economic and political development. The National Youth Policy (2004) recognizes the importance of youth, ”to participate, in an organized manner, in the process of building a democratic system, good governance and development endeavors, and benefit fairly from the outcomes”. Participation of youth is increasingly recognized by the public authorities, following the government’s strategy to involve youth in ecision-making processes. As a result, state agencies and ministries now invite representatives of youth federations during the approval of youth-related policies.