Implementing the United Kingdom Government's 10-Year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England (1999–2010): Applicable Lessons for Other Countries

AbstractPurposeTeenage pregnancy is an issue of inequality affecting the health, well-being, and life chances of young women, young men, and their children. Consequently, high levels of teenage pregnancy are of concern to an increasing number of developing and developed countries. The UK Labour Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England was one of the very few examples of a nationally led, locally implemented evidence-based strategy, resourced over a long duration, with an associated reduction of 51% in the under-18 conception rate. This article seeks to identify the lessons applicable to other countries.MethodsThe article focuses on the prevention program. Drawing on the detailed documentation of the 10-year strategy, it analyzes the factors that helped and hindered implementation against the World Health Organization (WHO) ExpandNet Framework. The Framework strives to improve the planning and management of the process of scaling-up of successful pilot programs with a focus on sexual and reproductive health, making it particularly suited for an analysis of England's teenage pregnancy strategy.ResultsThe development and implementation of the strategy matches the Framework's key attributes for successful planning and scaling up of sexual and reproductive health programs. It also matched the attributes identified by the Centre for Global Development for scaled up approaches to complex public health issues.ConclusionsAlthough the strategy was implemented in a high-income country, analysis against the WHO-ExpandNet Framework identifies many lessons which are transferable to low- and medium-income countries seeking to address high teenage pregnancy rates