Towards effective linkages of young people to sexual and reproductive health and rights services and support in eastern and southern Africa: perspectives from civil society

Abstract

Despite recent increases in scholarly and donor interest in interventions addressing adolescent SRHR in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), the evidence base to ensure that interventions are contextually nuanced, appropriate and ultimately effective is still lacking. Saetren (2005), based on a systematic review of health-related implementation science, describes the dominance of research focused on high-income countries as an 'ethnocentric bias in implementation studies'. Further to this, when research to support efforts to address adolescent SRHR in the ESA region is conducted, such studies are overwhelmingly concerned with evaluating impact, i.e. 'what works', with far less attention paid to exploring the process of implementation. Ridde (2016) emphasises that it is not sufficient to know that a programme or intervention works, 'it is also necessary to understand why the intervention works, how, for whom and in which contexts'.. An understanding of the socio-cultural contexts that support or inhibit programming on adolescent SRHR in the ESA region becomes even more pertinent when considering that many adolescent SRHR interventions implemented in this region were initially developed in wealthier countries - i.e. with more resources and different socio-cultural environments. The aim of this HSRC-led research study is to deepen understanding of the socio-cultural contexts in which efforts to link schools to SRHR services and support are implemented in the region. The study forms part of the School's Out project funded by Amplify Change.