What Interventions Exist to Improve Mnh Care and Reduce Social Exclusion for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents?

Victoria Lwesha, Save the Children US
Melanie Yahner, Save the Children US
Callie Simon, Save the Children US
Joseph Johnson, Save the Children US

Each year, 12 million adolescents aged 15-19 give birth in low- and middle-income countries. Despite high rates of adolescent pregnancy, strategies and interventions have focused on pregnancy prevention. Attention to the needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents (PPAs) is growing slowly. We did a landscape analysis through literature review and key informant interviews to identify evidence-informed interventions that focus on adolescent MNH with an eye towards interventions with potential to be scaled. Existing efforts have only been implemented at small scale in most contexts and target barriers at different levels: individual, family and community, and systems levels. We identified notable gaps, with adolescents not specifically being addressed in the global and country MNH guidelines, SOPs, and quality standards. Most countries do not disaggregate MNH data by age in their HMIS, limiting our understanding of adolescent service seeking at scale. More research and learning are needed to understand the impact of existing adolescent MNH interventions implemented at scale.