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Article History

Received: 20 April 2025

Accepted: 14 November 2025

First Online: 25 November 2025

Declarations

:

: This research received ethics approval from the Malawi National Committee on Research Ethics in Social Sciences and Humanities (NCRSH) on 19th May 2022 and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth on 11th May 2022. The Director of Research and Planning Unit at the Malawi National Police Headquarters and the Director of Reproductive Health at the Ministry of Health permitted the undertaking of the interviews. Key informant interviews were conducted with regional child protection officers and district health personnel to understand their perspectives after obtaining informed consent to participate in the study. All health-related data were secondary and publicly available, such that there was no direct involvement with the concerned study participants.

: Study participants provided consent for publication of their anonymised responses.

: The authors declare no competing interests.