This report is a call to decision makers, parents, communities and to the world to end child marriage. It documents the current scope, prevalence and inequities associated with child marriage.

Being pregnant and a young parent in South African schools is not easy. Books and Babies examines why this is the case.

Women in South Africa have had fewer children on average since the 1970s, but the rate of teenage childbearing in South Africa has remained the same.

Background: Adolescent pregnancy, occurring in girls aged 10–19 years, remains a serious health and social problem worldwide, and has been associated with numerous risk factors evident in the young people’s family, peer, school, and neighbourhood contexts.

Post-apartheid, South Africa democratised access to education as enshrined in the country’s Constitutional Bill of Rights of 1996.

Education is a vital component of the preparation for adulthood, and is closely linked to transitions into marriage and parenting. Childbearing among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa remains high, while primary school completion is far from universal.