As Uganda gears up to join the rest of the world in celebrating International Youth Day on August 12, data from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2016 indicates that 43% of women in Uganda aged 25-49 years were married before the age of 18, a rate that is considered one of the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In rural areas of Uganda, the teenage pregnancy rate is even higher with 27% of girls, aged
15-19 years having begun childbearing (UNFPA 2020).
Leaders have attributed the worrying to statistics to the failure of laws and policies in
addressing early marriages and teenage pregnancies.
“Many children from poor families will either get into marriage or get pregnant at a younger
age and even parents will look the other way. They won’t help the children. The level of
vulnerability is even expressed by Parents,” said Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the Kira
Municipality MP during Saturday's Capital FM’s Capital Gang program.
He pointed out weak laws and enforcement on combatting teenage pregnancies and early
marriages.
According to the World Bank’s 2017 report, teenage pregnancy contributes to 20 percent of
the infant death and 28 percent of maternal deaths.
The report also indicates that substantial economic benefits would result from reductions in under-five mortality and stunting rates, estimated together to reach US $275 million by 2030.
The Sheema Municipality MP Dickson Kateshumbwa cited cultural beliefs in which
parents look at girl children as a source of wealth and as such, marry them off at a young age
to get dowry.
“Poverty creates vulnerability, in the time of hard economic situations`, it’s always the
women and youth that are vulnerable; we saw it during the COVID-19 situation. The issue of
peer pressure should also be addressed,” he said.
The per capita expenditure for minor health care of a child per episode is estimated at shs
29,645 (US$8).
Families of all teenage mothers in 2020 spent shs 1.28 trillion (US$290 million) on SRH services and the estimated health facility expenditure on teenage mothers was shs246.9 billion (US$70 million). Collectively, this is equivalent to 43 percent of the Ministry of Health 2019/20 budget.
The Vice Chairperson of Makerere University School of Public Health Regulatory Ethics
Committee, Dr. Dinah Amongin called for the increased government’s efforts in keeping girl
children in school as a measure to address teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
She said high teenage pregnancies and early marriages, and this has affected the potential of
young people.
“Teenage pregnancies will need a multisectoral approach, starting with the family. Are the
parents empowered to speak to these children? COVID-19 taught us a lesson that children are
safer in schools,” she stated.