WINDHOEK: President Hifikepunye Pohamba says he is happy about the number of young people attending the fifth African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights currently underway in the capital.

Pohamba commented on the fact that the majority of delegates are youths while addressing the audience during the opening of the conference on Wednesday.

He further stated that Africa is currently grappling with several reproductive health and rights’ challenges which need urgent attention in order for safer conditions for sexual health and reproductive rights for women on the continent to be promoted.

“These challenges should be analysed thoroughly in order to devise better mechanisms that will help policy-makers plan better,” he noted.

Delegates attending the conference were drawn from countries such as Tanzania, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the host Namibia.

The conference is being hosted by the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA), and runs from Wednesday until Friday this week.

It was scheduled to interrogate the status of sexual health and rights in Africa, and in particular focus on women, girls and adolescents.

The gathering also offers a unique opportunity to further seek ways of mobilising action for improved understanding of sexuality and the promotion of the sexual health and well-being of all people on the African continent.