SESSION REPORT | WEBINAR 1
Why Teenage Pregnancy Persists in Uganda and What Must Change: A conversation with Academia, Statisticians, and Researchers
Tuesday, 26 May 2026 | 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM (East African Time) | Virtual (Zoom)
A CONVERSATION THAT MATTERED
On Tuesday, 26 May 2026, something important happened in Uganda’s adolescent health conversation. More than 259 people from 20 countries joined a 90-minute virtual dialogue that refused to look away from one of the country’s most persistent crises: teenage pregnancy.
Convened under the Link, Learn & Act Webinar Series hosted by the Ministry of Health, Uganda, convened by Reach A Hand Africa, this was not another routine briefing. It was a deliberate assembly of researchers, statisticians, policymakers, advocates, and young people all united by a shared refusal to accept the status quo.
◆ SESSION LEADERSHIP: 🎙 CHAIR Dr. Justine Bwire, On behalf of A/Commissioner Irene Mwenyango
◆ KEY SPEAKER VOICES: WHAT THEY SAID
Dr. Richard Mugahi — Commissioner, Reproductive & Child Health, MoH
“It is important that stakeholders come together to address the changing times and their challenges. Young people are learning from peers, digital platforms, and AI tools we need to understand the environment we are working in before we suggest what works.”
Prof. Frederick Makumbi — Makerere University School of Public Health
“Education remains one of the strongest protections against teenage pregnancy.
Too many young people remain out of school, limiting both their opportunities
and their protection. We must invest in adolescent-friendly health services and
ensure that sexually active adolescents who need contraception can access it.”
Anne Alan Sizomu — Programs Specialist, UNFPA Uganda
“If we are to reduce teenage pregnancy, we must go beyond the numbers and
address the root causes. This means strengthening economic and social
protection for adolescents and ensuring that sexually active adolescents have
access to accurate information and contraception.”
Sharon Uwamahoro Mfite — Senior Statistician, UBOS
“Uganda is not struggling due to a lack of data on teenage pregnancy, but
because that evidence remains fragmented across institutions, limiting
coordinated action and slowing down progress.”
Innocent Grant — Generation Action Africa (Tanzania)
“If Uganda wants better outcomes for adolescents, preventive approaches must
move beyond fear and punishment. Young people are more likely to make informed
decisions when they feel supported, not when they feel judged.”
◆ WHAT THE AUDIENCE SAID: POLL INSIGHTS
Four live polls generated 255 responses, not passive data collection, but deliberate advocacy tools that surfaced the collective thinking of practitioners, researchers, and leaders.
POLL 1 — What do you think is the BIGGEST barrier to reducing teenage pregnancy in Uganda? (74 responses)
Persistent cultural norms and gender inequality 31 (42%)
Weak enforcement of existing laws and policies 22 (30%)
Poor multi-sector coordination across ministries 11 (15%)
Limited access to youth-friendly health services 6 (8%)
Inadequate and fragmented financing of adolescent programs 4 (5%)
★ KEY INSIGHT: 72% of responses pointed to either cultural norms or weak law enforcement, making a powerful case for a twin-track approach: transforming community norms AND enforcing legal protections that already exist.
POLL 2 — Learning from Regional Peers (88 responses — highest)
Which country’s approach do you think Uganda can most realistically learn from?
Multiple countries — A tailored blend of lessons from all of them 41 (47%)
Rwanda — Community health systems + performance governance 23 (26%)
Kenya — Policy reform + school re-entry frameworks 13 (15%)
Ethiopia — Health extension worker model + rural outreach 8 (9%)
Tanzania — Recognizing shared regional challenges 3 (3%)
★ KEY INSIGHT: Nearly half the audience rejected a one-size-fits-all regional model, a mark of sophisticated thinking. Rwanda’s community health architecture (26%) is seen as the most transferable lever for accountability and community-level infrastructure.
POLL 3 — Organizational Readiness (49 responses)
How would you describe your organization’s current engagement with teenage pregnancy?
We have active programs or research on this issue. 25 (51%)
We are planning or in the early stages of engagement. 7 (14%)
We are primarily here to learn at this stage. 6 (12%)
We are interested but lack resources or entry points. 6 (12%)
We work on related issues, but not specifically on teenage pregnancy. 5 (10%)
★ KEY INSIGHT: 51% are already actively working on this issue. This is a high-readiness audience with skin in the game, an extraordinary opportunity to move from presence to coordinated partnership.
◆ WHAT STOOD OUT FOR MORE CLARITY: EDUCATION
Across the conversation, one theme rose consistently above the rest, and it demanded more than acknowledgment. It demanded accountability.
EDUCATION: The Gap Nobody Can Ignore
Prof. Makumbi said it plainly: education is one of the strongest protections against teenage pregnancy. Yet Uganda continues to lose girls from classrooms at an alarming rate. The conversation in this session was unambiguous: the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health are not doing enough to keep girls in school. When a girl drops out of school, whether from poverty, pregnancy, early marriage, or social pressure, she doesn’t just lose an education. She loses her buffer. Her safety net. Her future. And Uganda loses too: in productivity, in potential, and in a generation of young women who deserved better.
The questions this session left unanswered and that demand answers in the conversations ahead:
→ Why are school re-entry policies for pregnant girls and young mothers not being implemented consistently at the district level?
→ Who is accountable when a girl disappears from the school register, and what happens next?
→ What role does the Ministry of Education play in the multi-ministerial accountability mechanism that Poll 1 respondents so clearly called for?
→ How do we measure and report on the link between school dropout and teenage pregnancy rates at the sub-national level?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the foundation of the next chapter of this advocacy conversation.
◆ GEOGRAPHIC REACH: WHO SHOWED UP
Participants registered from 20 countries spanning Africa, Europe, North America, and South Asia, a powerful signal that Uganda’s teenage pregnancy challenge is a matter of global advocacy attention.
COUNTRY + NO. REGISTERED
Uganda ★ 297 Tanzania 10 Kenya 7 South Africa 6 United States 5 Nigeria 5 Sweden 3 United Kingdom 2 Finland 2 Zimbabwe 2 Namibia 1 Senegal 1 Nepal 1 Ghana 1 China 1 Canada 1 Jamaica 1 Bangladesh 1
◆ WHAT COMES NEXT
The evidence from Webinar 1 did not arrive to stay on a shelf. It arrived to ignite the next conversation. And that conversation is already scheduled.
WEBINAR 2 | COMING UP NEXT
Link, Learn & Act: Why Does Teenage Pregnancy Persist in Uganda, and What Must Change? A Conversation About Policy vs Reality: “The Implementation Gap”
Tuesday 30th June, 2026
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM (Eastern Africa Time)
Register (https://bit.ly/4xCDNfn)
Webinar 1 asked WHY, Webinar 2 asked: What are we going to DO about it?
The thread that will carry from Webinar 1 into the next session is clear. Uganda has the policies. Uganda has the data. Uganda has the commitment on paper. What Webinar 2 will interrogate is the implementation gap, the distance between what is written in policy documents and what is actually happening on the ground, in schools, in health facilities, and in communities. Education will be front and center. The question of why girls continue to leave
school and why no one is being held accountable when they do will be one of the defining tensions of that session.
Uganda does not have a knowledge problem. It has an action gap.
The 259 people who showed up on Tuesday and the 120 who stayed for every single minute are proof that the movement is real, the urgency is shared, and the momentum is building.
The next step is not another conversation. It is a coordinated, funded, and accountable action.
Link, Learn & Act will continue to be the platform where that action is convened, evidence is shared, and accountability is built.
PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS
Ministry of Health Uganda | Ministry of Education and Sports | Ministry of Gender, Labor & Social Development | Hewlett Foundation | Bergstrom Foundation | SASP | Danish Family Planning Association | National Youth Council | Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs | UYAHF | UNESCO | NUDIPU | FIDA Uganda | Third Sector Builders | Uganda AIDS Commission | Generation Act Africa | Family Salvation Foundation
SOURCES: LINK, LEARN & ACT _ Webinar 1 Series Session Report _ Ministry of Health,Uganda.pdf – Google Drive