Empowering AGYWs
Empowering AGYW
Empowering AGYW is a multi-sectoral initiative responding to the persistent health, social, and economic challenges facing adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Uganda’s high-burden districts, particularly Kamuli and Namayingo in the Busoga region. These districts experience some of the country’s highest rates of teenage pregnancy, low utilization of facility-based maternal health services, elevated HIV vulnerability, and widespread gender-based violence—challenges driven by poverty, harmful cultural practices, early marriage, geographic isolation, and limited access to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. With a predominantly rural and youthful population, constrained health infrastructure, and stigma surrounding adolescent health, AGYW often remain excluded from critical information, prevention, and care, increasing risks of early childbearing, poor maternal outcomes, and long-term socioeconomic marginalization.
Implemented by Naguru Teenage Centre (NTC) in partnership with UNICEF and district stakeholders, the project adopts an integrated, community- and school-based approach to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience among AGYW. Through targeted health outreaches, school-based HPV immunization, peer-led mobilization, and linkages to SRHR, HIV, TB, and GBV services, the project brings youth-friendly care closer to hard-to-reach communities. Complementing health interventions, vocational skills training addresses structural drivers of risk by expanding economic opportunities and reducing reliance on harmful coping mechanisms such as transactional sex and early marriage. By combining health, education, and livelihoods interventions within a protective and enabling environment, Empowering AGYW contributes to improved health-seeking behavior, reduced teenage pregnancy and HIV risk, and sustainable empowerment of young women to thrive and lead healthier, more autonomous lives.
