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Last week, news that 6 700 girls dropped out of Zimbabwe’s schools in 2018 after they fell pregnant or entered into unintended marriages, broke out.

Of concern is that of those drop-outs, 367 were from primary schools, while 6 419 were from secondary schools.

In Zimbabwe, girls usually complete their primary school education between 12 and 13 years, a time when their bodies are not fully developed to carry a pregnancy, moreover go into labour.

Such girls are at higher risk of birth complications that include obstetric fistula — a hole between the birth canal and rectum or bladder, that is caused by prolonged obstructed labour, leaving a woman incontinent of urine or faeces or both.

Many other complications that may lead to death during or after giving birth have stalked the pregnant teens.

Young girls engaging in early and unprotected sex are not just exposed to unintended pregnancies, but are also at higher risk of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases.

In the SADC region, countries like South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique are also battling with unplanned teen pregnancies.

In South Africa, for example, 3 000 girl children aged between 10 and 14 became mothers in 2017.

According to IOL, the Recorded Live Births report, which is commissioned by Statistics South Africa, showed that a total of 3 261 girl children aged between 10 and 14 were registered as mothers in South Africa in 2018.

The report also revealed that there were more than 100 000 teenagers who gave birth in 2016 in South Africa.

Namibia also faced the challenge of teen pregnancies, with the Khomas Region recording 89 school pregnancies in the first term of 2019, while 1 002 learners fell pregnant between 2015 and 2018, according to the Namibian Sun newspaper.

In Mozambique, child marriage and teen pregnancy rates are among the highest in the world.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef): “Mozambique, the country has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, affecting almost one in every two girls, and has the second highest rate in the eastern and southern African sub-region.

“Some 48 percent of women in Mozambique aged between 20 and 24 were first married or in a union before the age of 18, and 14 percent before the age of 15 (DHS, 2011).”

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) every day in developing countries, 20 000 young girls under 18 give birth.

This amounts to 7,3 million births a year.

Southern Africa has the highest level of adolescent pregnancy. It is estimated at 101 births per 1 000 woman.

The worrying statistics on teen pregnancies in the SADC region come just a few weeks before the world gathers in Nairobi, Kenya between November 12 and 14, 2019 for the 25th Anniversary of the Implementation of ICPD Programme of Action which was adopted in Cairo, Egypt in 1994.

The watershed Cairo agreement has been the cornerstone of the global reproductive rights movement for the past 25 years.

At the Cairo meeting, Zimbabwe was one of the 179 governments that adopted a revolutionary Programme of Action (POA) and called for women’s reproductive health and rights to take centre stage in national and global development efforts.

In an interview with The Herald, UNFPA Zimbabwe Country Representative Dr Esther Muia said sexual reproductive health remained central.

She said because of poverty and economic issues, transactional sex has taken a major position in young girls’ lives, exposing them to HIV and also unintended teen pregnancies.

“More efforts need to be driven towards this group,” said Dr Muia.

“If we do not specifically target this group, we are going to get another generation of an epidemic that may be difficult to erase because of the large proportion of young people in the population.”

To capture this group, she said, it is important to be innovative and target deliberate programmes that address needs of teenage girls.

“The economic aspect is critical, if these girls are economically empowered, then they do not have to look for transactional sex to survive in academic institutions and also outside,” said Dr Muia.

“The other part is early marriages. I’m happy to say that one of the progress here in Zimbabwe is that there are favourable Bills now in Parliament awaiting to be moved forward like the Marriages Bill. Consent for marriage. What is the legal age for marriage? It used to be 16, now the Bill has recommended 18 and it’s on its way to be accepted,” she explained.

“In the past when girls got pregnant, they didn’t get back to school. The return-to-school policy now allows girls to go back to school after they have had babies.

“When they have a baby and do not get back to school, the likelihood that they will continue is still there.

“But, now if they go back to school and they are counselled and there’s guidance, it will reduce the number of girls that will become vulnerable to either getting infected or unintended pregnancy, dropping out of school and the vicious poverty cycle.”

Article 20 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development calls for all state parties to enact and enforce legislation prohibiting all forms of gender-based violence; develop strategies to prevent and eliminate all harmful social and cultural practices that include child marriage, early and forced marriages, teenage pregnancies, slavery and female genital mutilation; and ensure that all perpetrators of gender-based violence are effectively prosecuted.

Yet, in the SADC region, there is a widespread belief that sexuality education will promote or increase sexual activity among children and young people.

However, according to the International Technical Guidance and exhaustive reviews of studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO), sexuality education programmes do not lead to an increase in sexual activity among young people.

To avert the challenge of unintended teenage pregnancies and other sexual reproductive health rights, challenges faced by this demographic, countries in the ESA region have over the decade taken major strides towards the development and incorporation of life skills education (LSE) and CSE in their school curricula.

According to a Unesco report titled “Comprehensive sexuality education in teacher training in Eastern and Southern Africa”, these steps are designed to counter the threat of HIV and other STIs, and to help protect young women against unintended pregnancies, provide the necessary skills to develop effective decision-making and communication skills, explore values and attitudes, and be made aware of risk reduction skills.

On December 7, 2013, Ministers of Health and Education from 20 countries in ESA affirmed and adopted the ESA Commitment in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Ministerial Commitment is a joint initiative of national governments, the United Nations (UN), Southern African Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC), civil society and development partners, under the leadership of UNAIDS.

It recognises the need for renewed political will to drive the implementation of HIV and AIDS policies and strategies, as well as the need for education and health sectors to work together in response to HIV and other pressing sexual health rights issues, teen pregnancies included, in the ESA region.

The African Union’s Roadmap on Harnessing the Demographic Dividend Through Investments in Youths, Pillar 3 clearly spells out the importance of access to health services by the youths.

It points out that it is critical to make strategic investments that would improve health outcomes, especially as it relates to access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning to ensure that women can decide on the number and spacing of their children.

More needs to be done to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies as they remain unfinished business in the SADC region.