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More than half of the world’s 1.8 billion young people aged 10–24 live in the Asia and Pacific region1 and a majority of them live in low and middle-income countries. In spite of their diverse socio-economic contexts, young people across this vast region commonly face limited access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services, including age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education. Of the 13 million adolescent girls globally with an unmet need for contraception, approximately half live in Asia-Pacific, leading to an estimated 3.7 million births to adolescent girls in the region annually. In addition, around 82,000 young people are infected with HIV each year in the region.

As adolescents transition through to adulthood, it is crucial that they are equipped with the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills to support their health and wellbeing, regardless of age, sex, marital status, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. School-based and age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is an effective means of reaching a large population of children and young people, particularly where rates of school participation are high. This overview of the status of in-school CSE in Asia and the Pacific provides a strong evidence base on the reach and impact of this across the region. Importantly, post COVID-19 we need to build back CSE programmes that are better and stronger to meet the social and emotional needs of our young people.