Summary
This volume emerged out of the Adolescent Reproductive Health Network (ARHNe), a European Union-funded concerted action project which developed the competence and capacity of researchers in East and Southern Africa to engage in health promotion activities (particularly in the area of reproductive health).
The main objectives of the ARHNe were to: strengthen and further develop research and practice related to the design and delivery of sexual and reproductive health-related services and programs targeting adolescents; foster the development and application of trans-disciplinary theories, conceptual models and research methods relevant to the study of adolescent health, and ultimately develop culturally appropriate intervention programs to modify adolescent health-related behaviors; facilitate technical co-operations among African researchers and between African researchers and their European colleagues in order to stimulate a productive scientific context for ongoing programs and to reduce the risk of costly, uncoordinated duplication of research.
This book ultimately represents a tool that may be utilized not only by academics in the field, but also by practitioners, governments, policy makers and students interested in the future research agenda, priorities and challenges of sexual and reproductive health in the wake of several international commitments.
Summary
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. Book jacket.
