The US government intends to dedicate a portion of its Shs 1.7 trillion health budget on providing family planning services to adolescents and women, but admits it is facing challenges getting Ugandan authorities to buy into the idea.

The USAID Mission director in Uganda, Mark Meassick, told journalists at the US mission on Wednesday that they will give special focus on family planning and reproductive health, through providing crucial, age-appropriate information to adolescents.

With Uganda recording one of the highest incidences of teenage pregnancies in the world, according to Meassick, it is important that mechanisms to address these challenges are put in place to avert what could become a full blown crisis. But the government does not support the provision of contraception to adolescents, he added.

“One of our challenges that we are working closely with government is trying to figure out how we address family planning with adolescent girls,” he said.

“We have had discussions with the First Lady about age-appropriate sex education and so we are trying to work out details about how that will work and what that needs to look like.”