First ladies from across Africa have met in Ghana this week for a conference on sexual health and rights.
Along with hundreds of policy-makers, the First Ladies have been urging governments to prioritize sexual reproductive health services.
At the 7th African Conference on Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights, first ladies from Ghana, Mali and Gambia, to name just a few, are uniting to discuss how they can make life better for young people, and improving sexual health services comes high on that list.
Good sexual health services and economic growth go hand-in-hand. Countries with larger working populations, and lower fertility rates, do economically better than those where there are more children. This is called the demographic dividend.
According to the head of the United Nations Population Fund, it will require a huge amount of investment for Africa to reap its benefits.
In West Africa currently more than 60% of the population are under the age of 24. Sectors such as education and healthcare have already been earmarked to try and bring that percentage down.
