Ghana misses 2022 teenage pregnancy target

Ghana has missed its 2022 target of reducing teenage pregnancy, that is per the latest figures from the Ghana Statistical Service.

Government in its Health Sector Development Plan for 2022 to 2025 had set a teenage pregnancy target of 12% for 2022, a significant drop from the 14% recorded in 2014.

However, presenting findings of the 2022 Ghana Demographic & Health Survey, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Anim reveals the prevalence of teenage pregnancy had instead increased to 15.2% in 2022.

“If you go into the Health Sector Development Plan you’ll see a target of 12.0%, nationally we are seeing 15.2% as at 2022 demographic and health survey. At the national from you see that we are off the target by 3.2% points. What is more concerning is the extent to which we are off the target at the regional level. At the regional level, we identify six regions that are really off the national average which is 15.2%. This tells you that even though at the national level, we are off the target, at the regional level we continue to see some regions that are deeper down off the target and this is the kind of reflection that we need to have if we really want to achieve our national target. The difference between the region with the highest teenage pregnancy and the lowest is from 25.9% to 6.0%,” Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Annim said at a press briefing.

He added: “Then we look at the drivers, teenage pregnancy from the report that we’ve seen is mainly driven my education and wealth status of household. We see significant differences between teenagers with no education having a rate of 24.3% and those with secondary or more having 12.5% as those being pregnant. And you see a difference of about twice those with no education relative to those with at least secondary education.”

The 2022 Ghana Demographic & Health Survey report revealed the Savannah region had the highest rate of teenage pregnancy (25.9%), with Greater Accra the lowest (6.0%). The other 5 regions that recorded a rate higher than the national average were Ashanti (23.9%), North East (23.5%), Bono East (22.3%), Oti (21.1%) and Western North (18.9%).