Safeguarding Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Current Funding Crisis: Webinar Series I

Abstract

This report summarizes the first webinar in a three-part series on safeguarding adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) amid severe global funding cuts. Held on September 17, 2025, the session highlighted how declining overseas development assistance—particularly the sharp reduction between 2023 and 2025—is threatening decades of progress in ASRH across low- and middle-income countries.

Speakers emphasized that despite adolescents constituting a quarter of the global population, only 2.4% of development assistance for health between 2016–2021 targeted their needs. Panelists discussed the historical underinvestment in adolescents during the MDG era, the risk of ASRH falling off the global agenda, and the urgent need for coordinated advocacy, resilience, and strategic action.

Key messages included strengthening investment cases for ASRH, emphasizing economic returns from supporting adolescents, shifting global health decision-making power toward the Global South, promoting equitable partnerships, and amplifying youth and community voices. The session underscored that safeguarding ASRH requires rethinking financing models, building domestic capacity, and ensuring sustained political and institutional commitment.