Community responses to a rise in teen pregnancies during COVID-19 in Malawi
Soon after the start of the pandemic in 2020, our CBO grantee-partners in Malawi let us know that their communities were struggling from economic hardship, lockdowns and other downstream effects – shocks that made children especially vulnerable. Of great concern to the communities was a sharp increase in adolescent pregnancies.
In response, Firelight issued grants of between $3,000 to $20,000 to nine of our CBO grantee-partners to enable communities in the Mangochi and Machinga districts of Malawi that had leading rates of teenage pregnancies during COVID-19 to launch and sustain an emergency response. (Part of our support enabled them to coordinate and offer each other peer support, sharing emergency information and best practices.)
Our CBO grantee-partners sought to: (1) address the social, emotional, physical and economic consequences of those pregnancies and (2) explore the root causes and drivers of adolescent pregnancy.
In meeting with adolescent girls, their families, social welfare officers, teachers, parent-teacher association administrators, religious leaders, and traditional leaders, they asked communities how they felt they could best support young mothers and their children. The CBOs then worked hand in hand with their communities, families and adolescent girls themselves to analyze the challenges and opportunities, identifying immediate and long-term actions to take.
Examples of consequences that communities identified and the actions they took
Consequences: Ostracization, stigma, rejection by their families and communities. Actions: CBOs worked with social welfare officers to, when appropriate, conduct counselling sessions for the girls and their parents. Some CBOs used youth clubs to help girls deal with stigma, build self esteem and gain peer support. Results: One CBO managed to reconcile all 47 girls who had been chased away from home with their families, with parents now providing support to the girls.
Consequences: Deeper poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and other poor health outcomes for girls and babies. Actions: In response, CBOs often provided girls with the essentials they needed to survive – including paying for pre- and post-natal care and delivering food to ensure that they and their babies would not be malnourished. Results: CBOs provided meals to help pregnant girls at risk of malnutrition. In one community, 120 adolescent mothers received meals for five months along with fertilizer and maize seed.
Consequences: Child marriage: some were forced to marry the child’s father. Actions: Recognizing that the power dynamic of these marriages could easily result in abuse and poverty, many CBOs worked with teachers, chiefs, and parents to dissolve many of the child marriages. Results: The CBOs worked with families to release 46 girls from child marriages.
Consequences: Punishment in accordance with community bylaws. Actions: In many communities, bylaws forced the girls – not the fathers – to pay fines for their pregnancies. In response, CBOs brought together 42 traditional leaders and other community stakeholders to review these bylaws. Results: Clauses forcing girls with premarital pregnancies to pay fines were removed from the bylaws.
Consequences: Removal or dropout from school. Actions: CBOs facilitated girls’ re-enrollment in school, providing psychosocial counseling and mentorship as well as funds for transportation, materials and school fees. Results: More than 450 girls were able to return to school as a result of these services from CBOs.
Examples of root causes identified by communities
To reduce future unintended pregnancies, the communities also came together to identify and address the root causes. Please see the full report for important context and results.
Root cause: Deepened poverty, putting girls at risk of transactional relationships or early marriage. Actions taken: Training for parents/guardians in business management and entrepreneurship, savings & lending groups. Connections to loan officers, direct provision of capital, agricultural inputs, sewing machines and training, fertilizer and seed for food security.
Root cause: Lack of education and intergenerational communication about sexual and reproductive health. Actions taken: Positive parenting sessions for parents and adolescent mothers. To help young people make informed decisions, peer education, fun activities and classes about sexual and reproductive health in youth clubs.
Root cause: Norms around adolescent pregnancy and child marriage. Actions taken: A range of community-specific awareness raising activities to engage both those who saw teen pregnancy as a routine occurrence on one hand and a mark of shame on the other. (See full report for details.)
Root cause: Lack of secondary education access and school closures. Actions taken: With fewer secondary schools in Malawi, girls are often left out of the transition from primary school. Communities can explore engaging relevant education leaders and relevant line ministries such as Ministry of Finance who allocate and approve budgets in constructing more schools (whether standard or vocational) and peer-to-peer mentorship at existing schools so that youth will see that staying in school will lead to positive life outcomes.
Some of Firelight’s grant-making lessons
· Addressing issues as complex as adolescent pregnancy requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders.
· Long-term change requires action that is not one-time or piecemeal – and it must be guided by communities with the support of their own embedded organizations.
· Trust-based, flexible grantmaking is critical to support organizations and communities to shift systems before challenges arise and to build the assets and resilience necessary to face and withstand crises when they come.
· When crises strike, trust and flexibility need to be enhanced.
· During emergencies, it is important that grantmaking systems be flexible and allow for support to reach the intended communities expeditiously.
· Participatory approaches are important, even during emergency interventions, to allow for genuine listening – giving the intended beneficiaries and the communities space to identify their needs and the support they need.
· Emergency interventions need to be anchored on existing community structures so that they are sustainable.