Advocacy win: MSI Sierra Leone contributes to reduced teenage pregnancy

July 15, 2025

The advocacy team in Sierra Leone recently played an important role in ensuring the inclusion of adolescent access to contraception in the third teenage pregnancy roadmap.

he third teenage pregnancy roadmap is a multi-sectoral strategy to provide decision makers and managers in the health, education and social care systems with a plan to reduce teenage pregnancy and advance the reproductive rights of adolescents. 

MSI Sierra Leone and Youth for Health partner HASIL led the charge to ensure that the third edition addressed some of the gaps that appeared in previous editions of this policy. The third edition had a more comprehensive vision around reducing early and forced marriage, and for the first time incorporated a public health pillar that included access to services for adolescents and brought the community into the consultation process.

MSI Sierra Leone, supported by UNFPA, GOAL, and Plan, played a vital role in advocating for the importance of adolescent access to contraception services as an intervention to reduce teenage pregnancies and empower adolescents to stay in school. They also made the case for engaging parents and peers under the community engagement pillar, to ensure parents were informed and did not become barriers blocking young people’s access to MSI’s services.

The strategy was finally launched in early 2025 and recently the number of adolescents aged 15-19 who are either pregnant or have had a child has reduced from 28% to 21%. 

To contribute to its implementation, MSI Sierra Leone held a media orientation session to raise awareness. After the workshop there was increased media coverage on adolescent pregnancy – an additional 7 newspaper articles, 8 radio slots, 2 TV bulletins, and coverage from 5 social media bloggers. In addition, the team hope to mobilise family planning champions in school health clubs to raise awareness of the roadmap and the increased access to services.