Prevention of child marriages and teenage pregnancy:
Child marriage is not only a human rights violation, but also contributes significantly to teenage pregnancy and poor maternal health to the affected child mothers. The proportion of teenagers aged 15-19 years who have begun childbearing remains high, though it has progressively declined over time from 43 per cent in 1995, 31 per cent in 2001, 25 per cent in 2006 and 24 per cent in 2011 (UBOS, 2018). The teenage pregnancy rate has stagnated at 25% since 2016 (UDHS 2016; UNFPA 2021). Furthermore, 7 per cent of women aged 20-49 years had their first babies at the age of 15, while 33.3 per cent of them had their first babies at the age of 18 years (UDHS 2016). This rate of child bearing is considered one of the highest in the Sub-Saharan Africa (National Population Council, 2019).
To reduce child marriage and teenage pregnancies in communities, Action for Humanitarian Initiatives Uganda will provide the following services which are in line with the NATIONAL STRATEGY TO END CHILD MARRIAGE AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY 2022/2023 – 2026/2027.
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA: Strengthening family and community capacity to support children and end child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Interventions.
- Promote and nurture positive parenting to create safe home environments and build a foundation of support and care for children.
- Translate, simplify and disseminate parenting guidelines to parents and community members.
- Male/ boys’ engagement in prevention and response to child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
- Build skills of adolescent mothers for parenting and resilience (caring for caregivers).
- Ensure safety and protection of babies of child/ teenage mothers and the teenage mothers themselves.
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA: Building avenues for economic empowerment, resilience building and improvements of livelihoods.
Interventions.
- Provide livelihoods options to improve household income in order to strengthen the abilities of families to support children and keep them safe.
- Empower teenage mothers, adolescent girls and boys out of school with livelihood knowledge, skills and employment opportunities.
- Facilitate cash transfers and mentorship to teenage mothers.
- Promote saving culture and use of indigenous knowledge to support creative industries.
- Build capacities of senior women and male teachers in schools.
- Facilitate and support the establishment of adolescents’ groups which offer safe spaces for girls and boys to talk about sensitive issues.
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA: Building avenues for economic empowerment, resilience building and improvements of livelihoods.
Interventions.
- Provide livelihoods options to improve household income in order to strengthen the abilities of families to support children and keep them safe.
- Empower teenage mothers, adolescent girls and boys out of school with livelihood knowledge, skills and employment opportunities.
- Facilitate cash transfers and mentorship to teenage mothers.
- Promote saving culture and use of indigenous knowledge to support creative industries.
- Build capacities of senior women and male teachers in schools.
- Facilitate and support the establishment of adolescents’ groups which offer safe spaces for girls and boys to talk about sensitive issues.