Good morning. It is an honour and privilege to stand before you today as Guest of Honour at this important scientific congress. The theme, “Towards 2030 Reduction of Preventable Maternal […]
In accelerated effort to enhance reproductive health awareness and promote family planning, the Zambia Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ZAGO) with support from AmplifyChange today (25th September) held a media […]
Adolescents and youth constitute a significant segment of Zambia’s young population. However, this demographic is often faced with unique health challenges and barriers to accessing quality healthcare. To effectively address […]
In Zambia, adolescents and the youth represent a critical population, full of potential, but also uniquely vulnerable. They face a range of health challenges – from sexual and reproductive health […]
Baseline Survey Data analysis phase for the “Improving Access to and Use of SRH Services by Adolescents and Young” project has successfully been completed. This pivotal step was aimed at […]
Our ECSACOG-FIGO partnership is committed to fostering innovative solutions, amplifying our advocacy to strengthen health systems to better respond to the needs and entitlements of women and girls, which includes their right to access safe abortion care.
Advocacy remains one of the strategic ways to addressing these challenges. Therefore, the need for strengthened advocacy skills amongst SRHR advocates and a creation of a strategy for advocacy is an essential part of the health system.
Eastern Province has continued to register record number of teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions cases. As recent as March 2022, the Province recorded 1,536 unsafe abortion cases, while 12,982 teenage pregnancies were recorded in the first quarter of 2021. According the records, 400 of these teenage pregnancies were girls below the age of 15, while the rest were between 15 and 19 years. Sadly, the Province recorded high number of child marriages: 39 percent of girls are married off either before or at the age of 18. This situation perpetuates a cycle of poverty as young girls are prevented from acquiring requisite education needed to contributing and benefiting from socio-economic development of the country.
As a professional body representing doctors specialized in maternal and newborn health in the country, ZAGO has been a key player to end gender-based violence in the country. Over the years, the society has employed various strategies to empower both women and girls with knowledge and information on how to identify gender-based violence, and defend their rights.
The need for ZAGO to remain vibrant and active cannot be overemphasized. This is because of the critical role the organisation plays in promoting reproductive, gynaecological and newborn healthcare. The existence of ZAGO has aided in providing direction to the practice of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in the country.