"Adolescent pregnancy and fertility in Uganda: does education have a role?" by Dr Anne Katahoire

Past Event

Date
13 February 2014, 1:30pm - 3:00pm

Location
Wolsey Hall
66 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6PR

This seminar is hosted by the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, an Oxford Martin School Institute

Speaker: Dr Anne Katahoire, Associate Professor in Behavioural Science, Makerere University and Visiting Research Fellow contributing to Collen Programme at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing

Summary: In this seminar Dr Katahoire will examine the problem of adolescent pregnancy and fertility in Uganda against a backdrop of a formal education system that has during the last one and half decades enormously expanded access to formal schooling for girls. Structural factors such as poverty however, continue to make it difficult for schools to retain girls from poor households long enough to be equipped with the capabilities needed for them to take control over their lives, make informed choices and develop the confidence needed to act on these choices. The role of formal education in empowering girls from poor backgrounds therefore cannot be assumed, rather it needs to be interrogated within specific social cultural contexts at specific points in time. For decades the role of education has been narrowly conceptualized focusing almost exclusively on formal schooling now there is growing evidence of non-formal education programs that are showing potential for reducing adolescent pregnancy and fertility. This calls for an expanded conceptualization of education as a more holistic system.

Convenor: Professor Sarah Harper, Director, Oxford Institute for Population Ageing

For further information: katia.padvalkava@ageing.ox.ac.uk