The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 5 simply states: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.  That is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

Interestingly, the UN Secretary-General, said in April 2020, at the beginning of a ravaging pandemic that, “limited gains in gender equality and women’s rights made over the decades are in danger of being rolled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.  He, therefore, urged governments around the world to put women and girls at the center of their recovery efforts.

Zonta Club

It is with this in mind and at the core of the values of Zonta International that the Zonta Club of Accra, Zonta international’s premier Club in Africa and in Ghana, a non for profit organisation, last Wednesday, organised a widely attended virtual session to discuss teenage pregnancy in Ghana and the way forward for us. 

The webinar was designed to mark this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, celebrated earlier this month.

As a budding society with gender parity progressively being mentored as a priority, our government is keen on getting every child through basic education, offering free senior high school as a top-up.  However, the increasing cases of teenage pregnancy in 2020, a year of a pandemic outbreak, seems to beg the question of achieving gender parity.

It came to light at the Zonta Club webinar last Wednesday that available statistics in 2020 captured over 8,540 teenage pregnancy cases as against 7263 in 2019.

Teenage pregnancy implications

Presenting the case of teenage pregnancy and the implications of the worrying situation among our school girls, the two panelists, Gifty Ben-Rye, Programme Head of Adolescent Health and Development at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and Nana Esi Inkoom, Officer in Charge, School Health Education Programme of the Ghana Education Service (GES), brought to light, the dire implications of teenage pregnancy.

According to the resource persons, the girls drop out of school due to pregnancies, even though a few gather the courage and defy ridicule by their peers to go back and complete their education, a necessity in today’s life. 

Luckily, both the GES and GHS have teenage pregnancy earmarked as a priority.  They have instituted programmes to encourage the girls to go back to continue their education.  Happily, a few are taking up the challenge despite the ridicule and bully by their peers.

Health, parental factors

But not only that.  There are other implications including risks to their health.  Early pregnancy leads to premature labour, giving birth to underweight babies, and some other complications.  There are also the risks of unsafe abortions that sometimes lead to death.

We cannot continue in that trajectory as a country.  Thankfully, both the GES and GHS have put responses in place for a way forward to help address the situation of teenage pregnancy.

Some of the measures include interventions to prevent pregnancy through social behaviour change, the intensification of adolescent reproductive health education in schools, and most importantly, the safety net concept which helps girls to stay in school while pregnant with facilitation of re-entry into school after childbirth, followed by home visits.

The presentations and the discussions held at the virtual meeting also laid a substantial portion of the blame on the parental factor. Research has shown that apart from peer pressure, a number of teenage girls were trapped by financial support, sometimes, as little as something to afford sanitary towels.

The call therefore is for parents to be more financially supportive of their girls’ needs to stem the attraction to have sex for money.  There was also the advice for parents to engage more with their girls on adolescent reproductive health issues. 

But above all, communities, especially the district assemblies also have roles to intensify sensitization on reproductive health in general and teenage pregnancy in particular in their areas.

It might be as small as a mustard seed but unfortunately, it is the little things of life that add up to hurt us.  And so it can be with teenage pregnancy and its resultant school dropouts producing unskilled and uneducated future mothers whose chances in society are negligible.  That, certainly, could destabilise our country’s chances of achieving its SDG Goal 5 by the target date of 2030.

With the advancement of women and girls at the core of its contribution to building sustainable communities, Zonta Club is determined to help reduce gender sapping issues in our society through service and advocacy.  The idea is to support all concerned to help with the way forward. 

The importance of the advancement of women and girls in any society cannot be overemphasised and that is a charge Zonta has taken upon itself to progress, going forward.

Writer’s email: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com