The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is calling for a concerted effort to tackle what it describes as an alarming rate of teenage pregnancy in Ghana.

At a two-day end-of-year review meeting with stakeholders in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, on Friday, 27 December 2019, experts and government officials deliberated on ways to achieve the sustainable development goals through improved access to reproductive health and rights.

Key among the emerging threats to sexual and reproductive rights is the issue of teenage pregnancy, which the UN agency says remains at a worrying rate.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the meeting, Mr Robert K. Mensah, a reproductive health specialist with UNFPA noted that: "Nationally, we have a problem in the country. We have about 31% of our population as adolescents; that is from 10 to 19 years, but the older adolescents who are 15 to 19 years, we realised that the Ghana maternal health survey of 2017 found out that of these groups of people, 15 to 19 years, on the average, nationally, 14.4 % have begun child-bearing – either they have a child or they are pregnant”. 

Giving a regional breakdown, the specialist further explained that the Western Region tops the chart with 18.9 % followed by the Volta Region with 17.9% and Brong placing 3rd with 17.3%.

The Central Region also comes close with 15.3%.

He noted that the Greater Accra Region, for some reasons, recorded just 7%. 

Dr Mensah called for increased governmental and parental control, as he revealed that transactional sex is on the ascendancy, with sexual predators making use of improved technologies, especially the mobile money services operated by the telcos across the country.

Meanwhile, the Volta Regional Coordinating Council says it has taken a team of experts and educationists present at the dialogue, to gather feedback to develop a roadmap to check the rate at which young girls are forced out of school as a result of teenage pregnancy.

Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Johnson Avuletey, while expressing his dissatisfaction over the development, expressed the hope that the committee’s report will come up with practical steps to tackle the situation.

He also admonished parents and all stakeholders to join hands in educating young girls about the dangers of teenage pregnancy.