Get Up Speak Out (GUSO) Brief: Malawi

Get Up, Speak Out for Youth Rights! (GUSO) is a 4-year programme that works towards the sexual empowerment of all young people, especially girls and women. The programme’s main goal is to improve their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)

In Malawi,  65% of the population are young people between 10-24 years of age, making it one of the youngest populations in Africa. Prevalence of child marriage and teenage pregnancy is among the highest in the world: 52.2% and 29% respectively. The utilisation of youth friendly health services is low (13%). HIV prevalence remains high in Malawi (9.2%) and new HIV infections among young women aged 15–24 years were more than double compared to those among young men. The country ranks 140 on the Gender Inequality Index. Adolescent boys are socialized to maintain patriarchal structures that disadvantage and marginalize women and girls. But there are real costs to boys themselves also when they subscribe to rigid notions of manhood. Data from our current project show that adverse childhood experiences are common among adolescents, and significantly more common among boys, and related with depressive symptoms and greater risk of perpetrating physical peer-violence (see Annexe 1-3).

These statistics show that there is an urgent need for SRHR interventions, that start young and that apply a gender lens

To download the report, click here

To learn about GUSO and our partners in Malawi, click here.