UN Youth: Poverty and Sexuality Education

The most recent “Youth Flash” out of the UN has some interesting things to say about youth poverty. While it is correct to see poverty as a “multidimensional concept,” it seems that calling sexuality education poverty reduction is a stretch. The Flash describes the work of a young woman in Haiti, and amongst various good and worthy works like teaching youth how to grow food, highlights her role as a leader of a “peer-led Sexuality Education workshop.”

She instils a sense of self-reliance and responsibility in her students, teaching them how to grow their own food using the resources they have around them, by composting, saving seeds, and planting in old tires and rice sacks. Lovely leads a peer-led Sexuality Education workshop about the causes and consequences of their sexual choices. She focuses not only on the physical aspects of sexuality, but on the emotional and social aspects as well.

Moving from growing food in tires to sexuality education is quite a step, and leaves one wondering how encompassing the definition of poverty can become, especially on the practical level.

What poverty does “sexuality education” alleviate? Shouldn’t the poverty reduction focus be on building basic infrastructure like clean water systems, roads, hospitals, and schools? Shouldn’t youth education programs focus on vocational skills and primary education to reduce the poverty that results from unemployment and lack of education?

With world food prices on the rise, and donor governments looking to cut financial burdens by reducing foreign assistance, it seems that definitions of terms like poverty should stay sharply focused on things that are truly essential to meeting basic needs like food, water, shelter, and vocational training.

View online at: https://c-fam.org/turtle_bay/un-youth-poverty-and-sexuality-education/

© 2026 C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
www.c-fam.org