Teenage pregnancy and some obnoxious cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are still major issues affecting the growth and development of adolescent girls in some rural and poverty-stricken communities in the Upper East Region, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana, an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has observed.
Mr Richard Amoani, National Coordinator for FAWE-Ghana Chapter, said the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy in some districts and municipalities in the region was “highly lamentable and mind-boggling.”
He stated that despite the frantic advocacy efforts by the not-for-profit making organisations, government agencies and other philanthropic organisations are willing to end the phenomenon.
Mr Amoani was speaking at the closing ceremony of a two-day capacity building workshop organised in Bolgatatanga, capital of the Upper East Region.
The workshop, which brought together traditional leaders, Health Directors, Directors from the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, among others, formed part of the Sexual Health And Reproductive Education (SHARE) project which aimed to aid the teenage girls and young women to access high quality sexual health care.
It would also empower the adolescent girls to keep themselves safe from diseases, avoid early pregnancy, and become advocates for their own health and well-being.
The five-year project, launched in 2022 and scheduled to end next year, seeks to support the realisation of sexual and reproductive rights for adolescent girls and boys in Ghana, Mozambique and Uganda.
Mr Amoani said the phenomenon of the rising teenage pregnancy in the project operational districts and municipalities; namely Bongo District, Kassena-Nankana West District, Kassena-Nankana Municipal and the Builsa North Municipality, was “very disturbing,” and called for effective collaborations among stakeholders to confront the canker.
“We also have an issue of forced marriage, and I attribute all these issues to the fact that most parents are not aware of what they are supposed to do, and they hide behind poverty and allow their children to go astray”, he criticised.
The National Coordinator urged parents not to shirk their responsibilities toward their wards and children, saying “And as stakeholders, there is the need for us to also do more sensitisation of parents’ responsibilities and what they (parents) ought to do for their children, irrespective of whether or not they have the resources.”
Statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicates an alarming upward trend of teenage pregnancies in the Bongo district from 2021 to 2024.
In the year 2021, for instance, the district recorded 82.01 per cent and it dropped marginally to 79.04 per cent. It recorded 82.16 per cent and 85.7 per cent in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
In the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, there was an insignificant reduction between 2021 and 2022(68.47 per cent and 65.3 per cent). 59.49 per cent and 57.95 per cent was recorded in 2023 and 2024.
“The project implementation has made some significant gains in the Builsa North Municipality as the rate of teenage pregnancies reduced from 63.55 per cent in 2021, to 58.52 per cent in 2022, to 56.09 per cent in 2023, to 48.85 per cent in 2024”, stated Mr Amoani.
In the Kassena-Nankana West District, the number of teenage pregnancy cases recorded in 2021 was 72.08 per cent, and it dropped marginally to 69.41 per cent. 2023 was 71.81 per cent and 2024, 69.38 per cent.
FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, BOLGATANGA
