Unwanted pregnancies, sexual and gender-based violence, and harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM/C are human rights violations and manifestations of gender inequalities that have a major impact on the lives of adolescents and young people, particularly girls, on several levels: health, social, economic and educational. In Senegal, where the Family Code sets the minimum age of marriage for girls at 16 (18 for boys), child marriages are common. Thirty-one per cent of girls are married before age 18, and nine per cent before age 15 (DHS, 2019).

Concerning unintended pregnancies, available data indicate that the unmet need for family planning is higher among adolescent girls in couples (23 per cent) than among all women aged 15-49 in couples (DHS, 2019). Fourteen per cent of adolescents are mothers or pregnant (DHS, 2019). Senegal's Power to You(th) program, led by Amref Health Africa Senegal in partnership with the National Youth Alliance for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (ANJSRPF), is implemented in four regions: Matam, Fatik, Thies, Diourbel, and Dakar. Poverty, isolation of remote communities, rural/underserved areas in terms of health services, and a strong influence of extremist religious groups are all prevalent in the regions, making unfavourable norms very persistent.