If no action is taken to reduce teenage pregnancy in Uganda, we are staring at a future where 50% of our teenage girls will be at risk each year.  

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Uganda Deputy Representative, Daniel Alemu, disclosed of the looming threat at the end of a teenage pregnancy hacklab pitch and award event held in Kampala on Tuesday, in which four winners were announced.

The End Teenage Pregnancy HackLab was driven by a vision to create a world where communities, including girls and young women, are supported, and lead the campaign against early and unintended pregnancy.

The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS 2016), shows that nearly three out of five women (58.2%) aged 20-49 years of age started childbearing while still teenagers.

Teenage pregnancy is also responsible for nearly one-fifth (18%) of annual births in Uganda, and nearly half (46%) of the births by teenagers were unwanted pregnancies.

Recent reports show for 15 years; teenage pregnancy had stagnated at 25% even when the country aimed to get that figure to 15% by 2020. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases spiralled.

A total of 354,736 teenage pregnancies were registered in 2020, and 196,499 in the first six months of 2021, UNFPA disclosed.  Even worse 250 children below the age of 15 got pregnant monthly in 2021, the report “The Economic and Social Burden of Teenage Pregnancy in Uganda: The Cost of Inaction” revealed.  

However, the figures could have been higher given not all girls attend antenatal care used to derive the numbers. The highest number of teenage pregnancies were in Wakiso district at 10,439 followed by Kampala with 8,460 cases.

It was followed by Kasese with 7,317 cases, Kamuli with 6,535 reported cases, and Oyam with 6,449.  Other districts that recorded many cases were; Mayuge which had 6,205 and Mukono with 5,535 cases of teenage pregnancies.  One outcome of the teenage pregnancy was girls dropping out of school.

Alemu says it is with the HackLabs that UNFPA spearhead innovative solutions to accelerate progress for women and girls, by disrupting inequalities and removing the barriers between women and girls and their rights and choices.

He says, “Furthermore, our collective concern must extend to the alarming rise of HIV among adolescent girls and young women and we must act together to reverse this trend which has a long-term effect on the girl-child and country at large.”

Alemu also says keeping girls in school reduces teenage pregnancies and the risks such as HIV that may arise from it.

UNFPA, as part of the UN Joint Programme on gender-based violence (GBV) in Uganda, launched the End Teenage Pregnancy HackLab in partnership with OutBox Uganda and funding from the Embassy of Sweden, to accelerate collective efforts towards ending Early and Unintended Pregnancy in Uganda.

Bulamu Bridge AI took first position, they were followed by Ndaba Innovation Hub in second, and the third position was a tie between Her Worth Foundation and Disability Innovations Uganda with each team getting awarded sh37 million to address teenage pregnancies in Uganda.

The HackLab engaged youth innovators to scale innovative solutions focusing on the 16 districts of Abim, Amuria, Kaboong, Kaberamaido, Kiryandongo, Kotido, Napak, Nakapiripirit, Pader, Yumbe, Moroto, Gulu, Bundibugyo, Kamuli, Mayuge and Kampala and received 127 innovations from across the country.