This blog was written by Nisha Thomas, PhD (Senior Education Advisor, World Vision UK).
I will be given all sorts of names, I don’t want to be the laughingstock, I would rather stay at home (Adolescent mother).
I cannot teach an ‘adult’ in my class, she will spoil other learners (Teacher).
I cannot pay school fees for someone’s wife (Parent of a pregnant girl).
Teenage pregnancy and adolescent motherhood are considered as major social problems which impact negatively on the educational access, participation and outcomes of girls. Teenage pregnancy and early childbearing are leading causes of girls dropping out of schools, and often result in increased health risks, social stigma and adverse economic impacts throughout the course of their lives.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest regional rate of adolescent pregnancy in the world with more than twice the global average of 42 births per 1,000 adolescents. Despite 38 out of 54 African countries having laws, policies, or measures that protect adolescent girls’ education during pregnancy and motherhood, they often face multiple barriers to continue their education and (or) re-enrol after giving birth. Discriminatory policies, gaps in implementation of laws, lack of family support, childcare, school fees, negative social norms, and stigma are barriers that deter their continuation in and re-entry to formal education.
The quotes at the outset reflect the range of judgmental and pathologising narratives of deviance, shame and stigma around teenage pregnancy and adolescent motherhood. In addition to stigma and discrimination, the absence of an enabling environment to support their continued education further constrain their ability to continue their education – for example, lack of childcare; lack of financial and social support for the girls/mothers; discriminatory and burdensome processes for accessing education, such as conditions attached to their re-entry; poverty; and lack of family support. Ensuring continued access to education for pregnant girls and adolescent mothers therefore requires a systemic approach, working in partnership with schools, families, community structures and government authorities in order to change perceptions and practices, and build inclusive communities and learning spaces that support teenage mothers.
The Adolescent Mothers’ Education Initiative (AMEI), funded by the Global Partnership of Education’s Education Out Loud (EOL), was one such effort of World Vision UK to achieve its strategic commitment of addressing the needs of the most vulnerable children. The AMEI programme, implemented by World Vision (WV) UK and our partners, WV DRC, WV Zimbabwe, WV Uganda, ISER (Uganda), CONEPT (DRC) and ECOZI (Zimbabwe), was a unique initiative that brought together various stakeholders in three countries – Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zimbabwe – to highlight and address the challenges faced by pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to access formal education. Through advocacy at local, national, and transnational levels, and by building social accountability, AMEI aimed at creating an enabling environment to access equitable education for all girls, particularly adolescent mothers and pregnant girls.
At the national level, the programme analysed the gaps in policy implementation, and advocated for changes in legal and policy mandates to enable continued education of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers. For example, in DRC, the programme influenced the provincial government to develop an edict explicitly banning expulsion and prohibiting bullying and discrimination of the girls in schools and communities in the Sub-Ubangi province, and piloted an early warning system in Zimbabwe – a tracking system deployed in areas where drop-out rates are high, to help teachers and school communities identify learners at risk of dropping out. The programme established strong child protection mechanisms in schools and linked it with community structures and, and trained teachers to offer Counselling and Guidance sessions (including some aspects of comprehensive sexuality education) as part of school curriculum. At the transnational level, the programme established ’data dialogues’ with ministries of education in DRC, Uganda and Zimbabwe to jointly identify gaps in data collection, and developed a human rights-based framework to improve the quality and reliability of data on pregnant girls and adolescent mothers.
Underpinning all these advocacy efforts, there was an intentional effort to ensure that the pregnant girls and adolescent mothers the programme worked with were empowered with a greater understanding of their rights and entitlements, and that they have the capacity to influence an enabling environment and seek their rights from service providers. The girls actively involved in the advocacy initiatives, participating as education champions within their communities, influencing school leaderships to provide transport to travel to school, boarding and breast-feeding facilities in schools, facilitate easier linkages with health centres in the communities, and create safe spaces in schools and community learning spaces, giving them an opportunity to discuss matters in a safe space without fear of judgement. The girls also initiated community dialogues – with school management committees, district education officers, local council members, police, child protection units, community and religious leaders – and educated them on the need for a more holistic approach to address educational inequalities.
They will influence bad behaviour among our youth in church, they will bring our church into disrepute (Faith Leader).
One of the most impactful interventions of the AMEI programme was its work with the faith leaders. In Uganda, Zimbabwe and DRC, a significant majority of schools are owned by religious institutions and in most cases when girls fall pregnant, they are either expelled from schools or are subjected to stigma and discrimination. The AMEI programme recognised that faith leaders are pivotal influencers and holders of power within these communities and schools they own, and possess the capacity to advocate for transformative change in support of educational opportunities for pregnant girls and teenage mothers. The programme’s advocacy work among the faith leaders provided an opportunity for them to recognise the notable barriers for girls’ education that are driven by negative religious practices and social norms. In workshops that brought together influential religious leaders from all three countries from Catholic, Anglican and Muslim faiths, the teenage mothers and pregnant girls shared their stories, everyday realities and experiences, unveiling a narrative that was hitherto unknown to (or) unheard of, and called for a nuanced perspective and commitment from faith leaders to advocate for the right to education for pregnant girls and adolescent mothers.
I heard gunshots and fled with my mother. I was ahead of my Mum and they killed her. Then, on the journey, two armed men raped me and I became pregnant” (Adolescent mother).
While understanding of adolescent pregnancy and parenting has expanded over the years, teenage pregnancy is still widely constructed as an isolated individual matter concerning morality (which is also gendered with a clear responsibility that comes with being female). Teenage mothers are often seen as deviants with bad values, or as helpless victims. These simplified stereotypes about teenage pregnancy and adolescent mothers, and any interventions that stem from these notions run the risk of extracting women from their situated realities. Education, gender equality, children’s rights and individual agency are all central features of modern childhood, but there are challenges to achieving these goals in contexts where lives continue to be shaped and impacted by conflicts, and gender, social, racial and economic inequalities. The lived experiences of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers cannot be understood adequately if we abstract them from the broader socio-political environments within which their lives are situated. The AMEI programme, in taking a gender-transformative approach to address the root causes of stigma and discrimination and by empowering pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to seek their rights, created spaces within communities and institutions, for them to be ‘visible’ and their voices, experiences and lived realities to shape a renewed understanding of teenage pregnancy in all its complexity.
