109,888 Teenage pregnancies recorded in 2020
A total of 2,865 girls between 10 and 14 years and 107,023 girls between 15 and 19 years got pregnant in 2020, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Sarah Adwoa Safo, has revealed.
She stated that the figures were a sharp rise in teenage pregnancy, with 13 such pregnancies recorded every hour in the country in 2020, saying “this revelation is indeed alarming and needs immediate attention.”
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Ms Safo made the observation in a speech read on her behalf when the ministry, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), organised a national gender equality clinic to educate and re-orient the youth on gender equality issues.
The three-day programme took place in Accra and brought together more than 100 adolescents— both girls and boys — from all 16 regions and was aimed at equipping the participants with requisite gender-based knowledge to make informed decisions in the future.
Ms Safo further observed that adolescents were at risk of substance use and abuse, unsafe sex, teenage pregnancy and teenage parenting, school underachievement, failure, dropout and violence, among others.
She explained that those issues formed part of the reasons her outfit and the UNFPA organised the clinic to sensitise and equip adolescents.
Objective
The facilitators made presentations on topics such as gender equality and gender stereotypes, sexual and gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health rights.
The participants also gained requisite information on life skills, including career development.
The facilitators in separate submissions urged adolescents to always stand up for their rights and report all abuses against them to the authority concerned.
Achieving SDG 5
The Director of the Department of Gender, Ms Faustina Acheampong, indicated that the gender equality clinic formed part of Ghana’s effort towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals Five (SDG 5).
The SDG 5 urges states to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls by 2030.
Ms Acheampong observed that women and girls made more than half of the world’s population but they were regularly discriminated against.
“It is necessary for society to acknowledge that the potential for growth and prosperity can be achieved when women and girls are empowered and afforded equal opportunities as men and boys,” she said.
UNFPA
For her part, a Gender Analyst at the UNFPA, Ms Selina Owusu, said all persons had the right to live a dignified life devoid of violence and abuse.
“However, women and girls continue to face discriminations based on stereotypes, gender gap, inequality, patriarchy, cultural norms and religious beliefs,” she said.
Ms Owusu, therefore, said it was crucial that gender equality education began early for adolescents in order to sensitise them to the importance of gender equality, adding that there was the need to inculcate respect for both sexes and disband any negative stereotypes.