By Bazio Doreen.

Adjumani has been nominated as a model district for teenage pregnancy surveillance and response in the financial year 2024/2025 in a zoom meeting convened by the Ministry of Health.

The early morning zoom meeting was held on Friday 19^th September 2025 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports under the theme: “Strengthening multi sectoral approaches towards reducing teenage pregnancy.”

Previously, Adjumani was also recognized as the best district in Adolescent programing during the 2024 Safe Motherhood conference. 

As of June 2025, the teenage pregnancy rate in Adjumani stood at 15.7% against a national target of 24%. This means that in Uganda, one out of four girls aged 15 – 19 years is already pregnant or has a child.

However, in Adjumani, the coverage of adolescents and young people in Sexual and Reproductive Health related care is quite commendable. In the financial year (FY) 2024/2025, among expectant mothers who attended their 1^st antennal visit, 2,351 out of 14,984 were adolescents; out of 13,572 deliveries conducted, 1,852 were adolescents; and among 49,146 family planning users, 2,255 were adolescents.

Similarly, there is also a tremendous effort in the education sector. Between January and September 2025, about 325 pupils and 225 students were returned to Primary and Secondary schools respectively.  Adjumani has 155,361 in school adolescents and 104,984 out of school adolescents.

In his presentation, Lulu Henry Leku, the Assistant District Health Officer in charge of Maternal and Child Health, said one of the best practices of the multi sectoral approach is utilizing the adolescent mentors to take services to where the adolescents are instead of expecting them to all come to the Adolescent/Youth Friendly Corner.

“We are now confident that the 7 well trained Adolescent mentors and 153 health workers trained on SRHR will provide a well-coordinated and collaborative responsive and surveillance even after all implementing partners leave the district. They help us to use a multisectoral approach by building synergies between government and all the partners implementing SRHR interventions,” Lulu confidently boosted.    

Lulu also said that in Adjumani all stakeholders acknowledge that teenage pregnancy is a reality and different platforms needs to be utilized because it is costly not to do so.

“We recognize that adolescents are actively involving in sex and thus teenage pregnancy is not only a reality but inevitable. Between 2012 and 2024, about 1,735,792 children are estimated to have dropped out in due course of transition from primary one to senior six. Our country loses about 645 billion due to school dropout with teenage pregnancy being one of the drivers,” Lulu said. 

Lulu further added that the recognition is relieving for Adjumani because the worst 23 districts with the highest teenage pregnancy burden are expected to share response progress reports to the Ministry of Health every Friday and also attend sessions online where the best performing districts share good practices.

Some of the best Sexual and Reproductive Health response practices by Adjumani related to adolescents also include: capacity building of all stakeholders for provision of adolescent responsive SRHR services and Gender Based Violence prevention, creating a safe and gender responsive learning environment, sensitization on existing education policies, roll out of prevention and management of teenage pregnancy guidelines, mentor child mothers for school re-entry, and functionalization of the District Committee on Adolescent Health.

While congratulating the district on the zoom call attended by over 200 stakeholders from other districts, Dr. Irene Mwenyango, Assistant Commissioner Adolescent and Sexual Health – Ministry of Health, thanked Adjumani for being a model district even as they grapple with hosting refugees. She also thanked the partners in Adjumani for choosing to support the communities to reduce teenage pregnancies by promoting sexual and reproductive health rights for adolescents. 

“I want to thank the leadership of Adjumani for ensuring that the district is a role model for teenage pregnancy surveillance and response. While the Ministry is looking at the target of 15% teenage pregnancy by 2030, I am glad that Adjumani is already tending towards it. I urge the rest of the districts on the call to pick the good practices,” Dr. Irene said. 

Henry Ssemakula, the Assistant Commissioner School health at the Ministry of Education and Sports, who was moderating the discussion also congratulated Adjumani for being one of the best performing districts in responding to teenage pregnancies and urged other districts to emulate the best practices. 

“You can imagine that 200 people are on the call to learn from you. We want to hear from you how Adjumani has for many year tried to maintain a low teenage pregnancy rate amidst many challenges like COVID-19 and hosting a large number of refugees,” Ssemakula said.

Similarly, Jovine Atima, Program Officer Adolescent and School Health Division – Ministry of Health, appreciated the district leadership saying that their achievement is unique to other districts with many non-governmental organizations. She also expressed gratitude to the district for putting in place a district committee on adolescent health before their other counterparts.

“I want to extend my gratitude to the district leadership. I have heard some people say that the success is because of many SRHR partners but we have seen districts where they have similar funding and many partners and yet they are not performing well,” Atima Said.

In affirmation, Annah Muhawe, a Senior Medical Officer at Right to Play, said that Adjumani has a very supportive leadership that has made it easy to not only implement interventions but also have strong and fruitful collaborations and coordination.

“We implement in many districts but Adjumani is unique. They have a unique sense of cooperation. They make it easy for the SHARE partners to implement, support and work together with government structures,” Annah said.

Indeed the biggest contributor to this success has been the 4 year long interventions under the Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE) project. Active since 2022, the implementation is led by Right To Play in partnership with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), and WaterAid, with technical support from FHI 360, and financial support from Global Affairs Canada.

Through the project, adolescents and young people between 10 – 24 years old and can access mentorship groups that equip them with the skills and knowledge to advocate for their health-related rights, and promote gender equity within their personal lives and communities.

So far, the SHARE project has: formed 65 school health clubs, trained 33 Social Behavioral Change mentors, trained 200 teachers, conducted 900 dialogues, trained 129 VHTs, supported 43 Health Centres, supported 08 secondary schools and formed 104 community groups that are now Village Loans and Savings group.

Cumulatively, as of March 2025, Adjumani and its partners had reached out to over 11,851 adolescents and young persons with SRHR information and referred them to the nearest health facilities according to records at the District Health Office.

Meanwhile, the statistics in Adjumani still need more efforts from all stakeholders as some of the sub counties have a high teenage pregnancy rate. The teenage pregnancy rate in Adjumani stands at: Adropi (21.8%), Ofua (20%), Arinyapi (19.6%), Pakele Sub County (16.9%), Pakele Town Council (16.6%), Ukusijoni (16%), Ciforo (15.7%), Dzaipi (15.3%), Itirikwa (14.9%), Pachara (14.5%), and Adjumani Town Council (12.3%).

The estimated population of Adjumani according to National Population and Housing Census 2024, is about 452,648 with 240,000 as nationals and 212,648 as refuges. Adjumani has 52 health centres with 40 of them government aided, 3 non for profit, and 9 privately owned. The district also has 383 schools with 171 nursery centres, 180 for primary level, 24 for secondary level and 8 tertiary institutions.

END.