In Uganda, approximately 1,000 teenage girls become pregnant daily, while 34% of girls are married before age 18.
By Willy Chowoo
Uganda’s efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy are registering slow progress, with the Ministry of Health reporting that the prevalence has declined by only one percentage point, from 25 percent in 2016 to 24 percent currently, regardless of several government interventions aimed at protecting adolescent girls.
Despite this, Uganda still ranks 16th among 25 countries with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and child marriage globally. The number country with the highest rates is Niger with 75 percent.
According to Multi-Sectoral Efforts to Ending Teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage in Uganda report for 2024/2025, approximately 1,000 teenage girls become pregnant daily, while 34% of girls are married before age 18.
This means, 365,000 teenage pregnancies are recorded each year . And 124,100 of these get married before age 18. As per the report, the country also recorded 1.2 million facility deliveries among adolescents between 2020 and 2025.
Statistics show that Uganda registers an average of 249,722 adolescent pregnancies annually.
Dr. Irene Munyago, Assistant Commissioner for Adolescent and School Health at the Ministry of Health, said the government had set a target of reducing teenage pregnancy to 15 percent by 2030, but acknowledged that progress towards achieving the target remained limited.
This is in line with the National Teenage Pregnancy Surveillance, Response and Accountability Framework(TPSR), developed by the Ministry of Health’s Adolescent and School Health Division with UNFPA support.
The framework is established to help reduce teenage pregnancy from 24% to 15% by 2030, aligning with Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV).
Speaking during a Health Café organised by the Health Journalists Network to discuss ways of addressing teenage pregnancy in Uganda, Dr. Munyago said government was strengthening the capacity of health workers and community-based structures to provide young people with accurate information.
She said the capacity-building efforts were not limited to health workers in health facilities but also included community structures such as Village Health Teams (VHTs), which play an important role in reaching households.
The Ministry also wants health workers to provide appropriate information and support to teenage mothers, including encouraging pregnant women to attend eight antenatal care visits to enable early detection of pregnancy-related complications.
“Lack of accurate information among the young people is contributing to the teenage pregnancy, we want to ask the media to help demystify those myths and misconception so that they make informed choices,” Dr. Munyago notes.
Dr. Richard Kabanda Assistant Commissioner for Health Promotion at the Ministry of health noted that access to information had changed significantly because of technological advancement and digital transformation, making information readily available to young people.
However, Dr. Kabanda said access alone was insufficient unless young people were supported to understand and interpret the information correctly.
He urged the media to strengthen public awareness on HIV prevention, saying young people needed renewed attention to health education and prevention of avoidable diseases.
The health café engagement exposed deeper social and economic challenges that continue to undermine efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies, particularly poverty, harmful cultural practices, inadequate parental guidance and misinformation among young people.
Francis Mondo Kyateka, Assistant Commissioner for Youth and Children Affairs at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, said poverty remained one of the major obstacles to addressing teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
Kyateka said government had introduced several livelihood programmes, including the Parish Development Model (PDM), Youth Livelihood Programme, Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme and the GROW programme, to improve household incomes and reduce economic vulnerability.
According to him, economic hardship can push families to view girls as sources of wealth through marriage rather than investing in their education and future.
The commissioner warned against the practice of treating girls as commodities for marriage, arguing that keeping girls in school was among the most effective ways of protecting them from early marriage and teenage pregnancy.
“Our girls are not commodities for sale. We need to have girls in school,” he said.
Kyateka further argued that school attendance provides an important protective environment for girls, giving them opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills before making decisions about marriage and family life.
Cultural practices continue to expose girls
The discussion also highlighted how deeply rooted cultural practices in some communities continue to contribute to early marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Kyateka cited communities in Amudat District, where girls who undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) can be considered ready for marriage, even when they are as young as 10 years old.
He also referred to a practice in Lyantonde, described during the discussion as “Oxitola”, in which a girl may disappear for a week before her family announces that she has been found, only for marriage negotiations to follow.
He said such practices undermine girls’ education and expose them to early motherhood before they have the opportunity to develop their potential.
“There are these things that are happening amongst us, sometimes as a result of lack of awareness, sometimes as a result of being primitive, and sometimes as a result of just being careless.” Kyateka warns.
The teenage pregnancy may jeopardize Uganda’s effort to achieve its human capital development ambitions when girls were being pushed into marriage before completing their education. In Uganda, 124,100 girls below age of 18 are married every year.
He said the problem required collective action from government, communities, parents, religious leaders and other stakeholders.
Misinformation and inadequate parental support.
The discussion also exposed how misinformation about menstruation and reproductive health can put adolescent girls at risk.
Kyateka narrated an incident in which a young man allegedly misled six girls by telling them he had medicine that could stop their monthly menstrual periods. He reportedly used this false claim to gain their trust and sexually exploited them, resulting in all six becoming pregnant.
The incident illustrates the dangers young people face when they lack accurate information about their reproductive health.
He also shared another account involving a girl who struggled to obtain menstrual hygiene products because her father frequently quarrelled with her mother whenever she requested money to buy sanitary pads.
According to Kyateka, the mother eventually told the girl to get pregnant to avoid the constant family disagreements over the cost of menstrual products.
These experiences demonstrate how household attitudes, inadequate parental support and limited awareness can contribute to circumstances that expose girls to teenage pregnancy.
Kyateka said the country needed to interrogate the circumstances surrounding teenage pregnancies rather than simply blaming girls for becoming pregnant.
“The issue of teenage pregnancy in Uganda is a worrying national crisis- everybody must get involved, let us not say this is a government issue, this is issue for us all,” he added.
Government introduces new guidelines
To address some of these challenges, the Ministry of Gender had developed National Parenting Guidelines to strengthen the role of parents in guiding children.
Kyateka said the ministry had also developed a National Family Policy, which was awaiting Cabinet discussion and approval at the time of the meeting.
He expressed concern that some children were growing up without adequate parental guidance, arguing that being a mother or father did not necessarily mean fulfilling the responsibilities of parenting.
“The family in Uganda is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), we don’t have families right now, children are not living in family, they are on their own.” Kyateka warns.
The Ministry of Education had also recently launched a national framework on health education and life skills, which is expected to guide interventions aimed at empowering girls, boys and parents to address teenage pregnancy.
Kyateka said the framework was intended to support young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed decisions.
Henry Ssemakula Principal Education officer at the ministry of education said they are committed to reducing teenage pregnancy in the country
“We are giving information to help young people not get pregnant, we are using religious leaders among other stakeholders.” he adds.
Kyateka further pointed to a national multisectoral strategy aimed at ending teenage pregnancy and child marriage, saying different government ministries and agencies were expected to contribute to its implementation.
However, the persistence of teenage pregnancy raises questions about how effectively these policies and interventions are reaching vulnerable communities.
Government calls for greater youth engagement
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) National Population and Housing Census 2024 (NPHC 2024), Uganda has a total population of 45,905,417
As per the census, Uganda remains a youthful nation, with over half its population (50.5 percent) children aged 17 and under, reflecting the country’s demographic dividend and the need for targeted youth-centric policies
Dr. Richard Kabanda, Assistant Commissioner for health promotion at the Ministry of Health said young people must be placed at the centre of interventions intended to address teenage pregnancy.
Dr. Kabanda argued that programmes designed without meaningful participation of young people were unlikely to be sustainable at community level.
“We need to build culture of working with young people as part of day today’s programming,” he notes.
The commissioner said the country needed to build stronger networks that allow young people to interact, share experiences and learn from one another. Adding that it is importance to create supportive environments in which adolescents can make informed decisions rather than having adults make every decision on their behalf.
Dr. Kabanda encouraged young people to prioritise education, arguing that completing school and acquiring professional skills could improve their future employment opportunities and help address poverty.
For Uganda, the ambition of reducing teenage pregnancy to 15 per cent by 2030 will require more than the introduction of policies and guidelines. It will depend on whether these interventions translate into meaningful protection for girls in their homes, schools and communities.
With the Ministry of Health reporting only a one-percentage-point reduction, the challenge remains how to turn government commitments into measurable improvements in the lives of adolescent girls.
