Pulse Lab Kampala and UNFPA collaborated on a project to explore the use of real-time digital data to understand debate among Ugandans on contraception and teenage pregnancy, and to analyse perceptions towards different types of contraception.
The project resulted in a real-time interactive dashboard that analyses public Facebook posts and data from UNICEF’s U-report (a SMS-based polling system for Ugandan youth) for keywords related to contraception and teenage pregnancy. The dashboard allows for tracking of emerging and trending topics and perceptions related to family planning month by month. This project demonstrated the potential of using social data to supplement traditional means of gaining insights through less-frequent national surveys.
In Uganda teenage pregnancy is at a high level of 24%, additionally young women aged 15-24 are a high risk group for contracting HIV. UNFPA works to improve public health outcomes and help all young people fulfil their potential, to help ensure that people have access to family planning and contraception to reduce STI’s and unplanned pregnancies. In order to tailor their approaches it can be helpful to gain insights into the changing attitudes of young Ugandans towards contraception.
Access the online dashboard at https://familyplanning.unglobalpulse.net//uganda/.
RELATED: Read a blogpost about the project, and a summary of UNFPA’s recent “big data bootcamp“
