Table 1 A summary of some barriers and enablers of interventions focusing on adolescent pregnancy prevention

• Lack of SRH knowledge, access to adolescent-friendly SRH services and lack of resources to access services.

• Comprehensive and age-appropriate sexual education programmes that provide accurate information about sexual health, contraception and relationships to enable adolescents to make informed decisions.

• Teachers’ lack of sex education training is a barrier to the effective delivery of sex education classes.

• Adolescents can make responsible decisions with the assistance of supportive families, communities and peer networks that promote safe sexual practices and healthy relationships.

• The inability to openly discuss and make contraceptive decisions for adolescent girls, particularly girls with older partners.

• Education and empowerment programmes that empower adolescents through education, life skills training, self-esteem and economic opportunities to reduce the likelihood of adolescent pregnancy by providing alternatives to parenthood.

• Adolescent girls may be subjected to societal pressure to marry and have children once married.

• Implementing interventions that address the economic, socio-cultural and environmental factors that place adolescents in a position to deal with an unintended pregnancy.

• Encouraging adolescents to delay their sexual debut, countering child marriage practices, increasing uptake and continued use of contraception, and educating girls and boys on the risks of unintended pregnancies.