In Africa, as in many parts of the world, adolescent reproductive health is a controversial issue for policy makers and programme planners. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and to a host of other problems such as sexually transmitted infection, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortions, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation and unsafe circumcision. Yet many countries don't have adolescent health policies and much remains to be done to ensure that adolescents can access appropriate sexual and reproductive health services.
Articulating new perspectives and strategies to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health, the authors of this volume comprise a network of researchers working in east and southern Africa. They make a unique attempt to bring together the social and biomedical sciences and to disseminate concrete empirical evidence from existing programmes, carefully analysing what works and what doesn't at the local level.
The chapters are built on the premise that sexual and reproductive health behaviour is multifaceted and that interventions must operate on several levels - individual, organisational and governmental - and must reach young people in schools, communities, workplaces, and health-care institutions. Cognisant of recent research and the ethical difficulties facing researchers, the authors provide practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers wishing to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health at the policy and institutional levels and in local communities.
Co-published with Nordic Africa Institute - ISBN 978-91-7106-599-5
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Part I: Policy and Theory Informing Practice
- Public Policy: A tool to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health
Yogan Pillay & Alan Flisher - Social Cognition Models and Social Cognitive Theory: Predicting sexual and reproductive behaviour among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa
Leif Edvard Aar, Herman Schaalma & Anne Nordrehaug strm - Health Education and the Promotion of Reproductive Health: Theory and evidence-based development and diffusion of intervention programs
Herman Schaalma & Sylvia Kaaya - Ethical Dilemmas in Adolescent Reproductive Health Promotion
Gro Th. Lie
Part II Contextual Aspects of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- From Initiation Rituals to AIDS Education: Entering adulthood at the turn of the millennium
Graziella van den Bergh - Illegal Abortion among Adolescents in Dar es Salaam
Vibeke Rasch & Margarethe Silberschmidt - Adolescent Sexuality and the AIDS Epidemic in Tanzania: What has gone wrong?
Melkizedeck Leshabari, Sylvia Kaaya & Anna Kessy - To Risk Or Not To Risk? Is It a Question? Sexual Debut, Poverty and Vulnerability in Times of HIV: A case from Kigoma Region, Tanzania
Graziella van den Bergh
Part III Addressing the Needs of Adolescents: Arenas for Action
- Peer Education for Adolescent Reproductive Health: An effective method for program delivery, a powerful empowerment strategy, or neither?
Sheri Bastien, Alan Flisher, Cathy Mathews & Knut-Inge Klepp - Adolescent-Friendly Health Services in Uganda
John Arube-Wani, Jessica Jitta & Lillian Mpabulungi - Quality of Care: Assessing nurses and midwives attitudes towards adolescents with sexual and reproductive health problems
Elisabeth Faxelid, Joyce Musandu, Irene Mushinge, Eva Nissen & Mathilde Zvinavashe
Part IV Evaluation and Review of Interventions in sub-Saharan Africa
- Evaluating Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Interventions in Southern and Eastern Africa
Alan Flisher, Wanjiru Mukoma & Johann Louw - A Systematic Review of School-Based AIDS Prevention Programmes in South Africa
Wanjiru Mukoma & Alan Flisher
