Last weekend I traveled to Singapore for a new fellowship I’m participating in called the Swedish Institute Management Program Asia (SIMP Asia). The Fellowship is funded by development aid from the government of Sweden and is granted to 30 young leaders from six different countries in Asia, with the aim of improving skills in responsible leadership and sustainability. I was one of the five participants from the Philippines and we joined young leaders from China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Two staff members of the Swedish Institute and two staff members of Enact Sustainable Strategies (a consulting firm focused on Sustainable Business Development and Corporate Responsibility) presented our two-day orientation in Singapore. We learned more about the Swedish Institute’s programs and about the leadership training we’ll be undertaking for two weeks in Sweden this May.
Given my interests and the work that I do, I was especially interested in learning more about Sweden and how women and girls are treated there. I wanted to find out more about their sex education for young people, their teen pregnancy rates, and their experiences with pregnancy. Through conversations with my new Swedish friends and research, I learned that Sweden is a pretty amazing country with some fantastic policies and benefits for its citizens.
Age-Appropriate Sex Education
Sweden has very progressive sex education practices. All schools have been mandated to provide sex education to young people since 1956. The education campaigns start as young as when children are 3 or 4 years old in primary school, and continues throughout secondary school. Topics include not just sex, but also issues relating to consent, alcohol and substance abuse and mental health. A direct result of comprehensive sex education is that Sweden’s adolescent birth rate is very low, at 5.9%. Compare this to the Philippines’ adolescent birth rate of 20% nationally (and 25% here in Palawan!)
Gender Equity
Sweden has progressive gender equality policies that ensure that women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all areas of life. Gender equality policies are present in schools and in the workplace and are especially evident in Sweden’s parental leave policies.
Maternity Benefits
In order to provide parents and their new babies with the healthiest start possible, Swedes are granted 480 days (about 16 months) of paid leave when they have a baby or adopt. This leave time can be shared by couples however they choose but each parent is given 90 days that can’t be transferred to one another to ensure bonding time for both parents with the new baby. These policies are granted to all new parents regardless of sexual orientation, and are also granted to single parents. Imagine if Filipino parents got to spend that much time with their babies.
These are only some of the realities that Swedes have that have made them the envy of many other countries.
Sweden is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. So of course we cannot make comparisons on general quality of life and the kind of rights and benefits that Swedes enjoy as compared to those of Filipinos. But on the topic of adolescent reproductive health, I do believe we can learn something from them, and put similar programs into place.
In particular, it is so important to begin the implementation of age-appropriate sex education from primary school. This is one of the stipulations of the RH Law, but two years after the Law’s constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court, we still do not have a set training for teachers or plans or curriculum for how to roll out sex ed. Why is the Department of Education dragging its heels on a program that would keep more girls in school?
Young people today live in a confusing, complicated world. They receive mixed messages from adults and thanks to technology can have private interactions with people that their parents will never know of. Given this, we also need to ensure the sex education we do give young people is comprehensive and includes not just the mechanics of biology and how pregnancies occur, but also discuss such issues as self-esteem, relationships, consent, alcohol and drug use, online safety, sexually transmitted infections, and dealing with peer pressure. Only when we equip our young people with the knowledge and information needed to empower them to protect their health will we start seeing a drop in our alarmingly high teen pregnancy rate.