EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Adolescent pregnancy remains a major issue around the world that causes many irreversible health and socio-economic consequences that alter the course of young women’s entire life. These may include childbirth complications, death, unsafe abortions, school dropout, low educational attainment, household poverty, lack of economic independence, limited income-earning opportunities, illiteracy, violence, and social isolation.

In Kenya, Adolescent childbearing varies widely by county, from a low of 6% in Murang’a to a high of 40% in Narok. Young women with no education are much more likely to have begun childbearing (33%) compared to those with secondary or higher education (12%). The median age of first intercourse is 18 for women and 17 for men. 15% of women and 21% of men had their first sexual encounter by age 15. Age at marriage varies widely by county of residence with women marrying the earliest in Migori, Tana River and Homa Bay at just over 17 years.

The factors driving adolescent pregnancy in Kenya are complex, varied and manifest from deeply rooted gender inequalities, social norms and poverty. Additionally, inadequate access to comprehensive sexual education, adolescent sexual and reproductive health services and limited economic perspectives contribute to high adolescent pregnancy rates. Reduction of adolescent pregnancy therefore requires multifaceted interventions.

Since 2019, Akili Dada has been working to develop a toolkit that will package relevant comprehensive Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights information and apply a mix of context-specific intervention strategies to reduce adolescent pregnancies in Kenya.

This assessment therefore set out to generate quantitative and qualitative data to understand the factors that contribute to adolescent pregnancy, consequences of teenage pregnancy, what state and non-state actors are doing to address adolescent pregnancy in the hotspot counties and identify context specific strategies that can be employed to reduce adolescent pregnancies in Kenya.

Objectives

The assessment objectives included:

1. Identify the factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in 10 counties with high adolescent pregnancy rates in Kenya 2. To explore the contextual factors contributing to adolescent pregnancy and consequences of adolescent pregnancy in the targeted counties 3. To contribute to the evidence on effective and context-specific intervention strategies to reduce adolescent pregnancy

Methodology

The assessment was conducted in ten purposively selected counties with high adolescent pregnancy rates in Kenya: 1) Bomet 2) Bungoma 3) Busia 4) Homa- Bay 5) Kisii 6) Kisumu 7)