This book provides a clear and detailed examination of why it is so difficult to secure comprehensive political engagement and actionable, effective policy on sexual and reproductive health rights in sub-Saharan Africa. In an engaging analysis, Nana Poku employs expert knowledge to examine the prospects for large-scale improvements. He explores not only the full range of normative sensitivities, but also conceptual misunderstandings, legal difficulties and complex challenges of securing and maintaining adequate funding while AIDS remains a pandemic in the region. Up-to-date, succinct yet highly detailed, lucid and compelling in its diagnoses of highly complex issues, this book is a valuable, accessible study of a topic that is regional in focus but with clear global implications.

This book provides a clear and detailed examination of why it is so difficult to secure comprehensive political engagement and actionable, effective policy on sexual and reproductive health rights in sub-Saharan Africa. In an engaging analysis, Nana Poku employs expert knowledge to examine the prospects for large-scale improvements. He explores not only the full range of normative sensitivities, but also conceptual misunderstandings, legal difficulties and complex challenges of securing and maintaining adequate funding while AIDS remains a pandemic in the region. Up-to-date, succinct yet highly detailed, lucid and compelling in its diagnoses of highly complex issues, this book is a valuable, accessible study of a topic that is regional in focus but with clear global implications.--

This book explores recent developments, constraints and opportunities relating to the advancement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa. Despite many positive developments in relation to sexual and reproductive health in recent years, many Africans still encounter challenges, for instance in poor maternity services, living with HIV, and discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation or identity. Covering topics such as abortion, gender identity, adolescent sexuality and homosexuality, the chapters in this book discuss the impact of culture, morality and social beliefs on the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights across the continent, particularly in relation to vulnerable and marginalized groups. The book also explores the role of litigation, national human rights institutions and regional human rights bodies in advancing the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the region. Throughout, the contributions highlight the relevance of a rights-based framework in addressing topical and contentious issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights within Sub-Saharan Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers of sexuality, civil rights and health in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003175049, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book focuses on reproductive health rights and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa. Each chapter is connected to the other by focusing on different aspects of ART as a means of achieving conception. Topics such as regulation of ART practices, surrogacy and specific aspects of ART, which are gradually becoming acceptable but largely unregulated in Africa, promises to be of interest to scholars, researchers and fertility practitioners. Research in the book take a rights based approach and ethical analysis of ART practice in sub-Saharan Africa by authors from diverse backgrounds bringing together law and society perspectives. Readers stand to gain new knowledge on the societal, legal, medical and psychological requirements, effects and challenges of reproductive health rights and ART in the African context. The book is also relevant to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being, given that it promotes and advocates for access to reproductive healthcare for persons who have difficulty or are unable to conceive without medical assistance.

This important book provides a critical examination of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young women and girls in Southern Africa, examining the ways in which current policies and programmes aimed at improving SRHR often fail to reach the most marginalised populations. Addressing key regional challenges such as high rates of HIV, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and sexual and gender-based violence, the book highlights how health inequalities in the region are in fact increasing, despite the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of "leaving no one behind". The book draws on theoretical analysis and empirical data gathered from studies carried out in five Southern African countries (Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), arguing that a continued focus on HIV and interventions that target health in a narrow sense often fail to understand the wider socio-economic determinants of poor sexual and reproductive health and the ways in which girls and young women are made vulnerable. Written by leading scholars in the field, this will be essential reading for students and researchers in Global Health, International Development, Women’s Studies, and all related fields.

"This volume presents the highlights of current global thinking about sexual and reproductive health. Major changes have taken place in the last 15 years in the way decision-makers think about the subject and the manner in which programmes deliver comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services. The turning point was the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994. ICPD was a watershed for several reasons. First, more than in any of the preceding United Nations population conferences, the issue of population was clearly placed as being central to sustainable development. Second, the narrow focus on population growth ("the population bomb") which had been a neo-Malthusian concern and preoccupation ever since the Club of Rome published its 1972 report Limits to Growth, was replaced by the comprehensive concept of (sexual and) reproductive health. Third, and linked to the definition and introduction of the reproductive health concept, was the strong call for a paradigm shift away from a policy environment driven by demographic considerations (sometimes to the point of using coercion in family planning services in order to reach demographic targets) to an environment that recognized the right of individuals to make their own choices. And, last but not least, ICPD as well as the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) held the following year in Beijing, People's Republic of China, strongly emphasized that the rights of women and men to good sexual and reproductive health are firmly grounded in universal human rights"--Provided by publisher.

Health rights litigation is still an emerging phenomenon in Africa, despite the constitutions of many African countries having provisions to advance the right to health. Litigation can provide a powerful tool not only to hold governments accountable for failure to realise the right to health, but also to empower the people to seek redress for the violation of this essential right. With contributions from activists and scholars across Africa, the collection includes a diverse range of case studies throughout the region, demonstrating that even in jurisdictions where the right to health has not been explicitly guaranteed, attempts have been made to litigate on this right. The collection focusses on understanding the legal framework for the recognition of the right to health, the challenges people encounter in litigating health rights issues and prospects of litigating future health rights cases in Africa. The book also takes a comparative approach to litigating the right to health before regional human rights bodies. This book will be valuable reading to scholars, researchers, policymakers, activists and students interested in the right to health.

This expansive survey spotlights pervasive issues affecting girls’ and women’s sexual and reproductive health across the lifecourse. Research from diverse countries around the world analyzes the complex relationships among biological, psychological, sociocultural, and economic issues—particularly in terms of inequities—as they shape women’s lives. Major challenges and possibilities for intervention are examined in their national context and with their global implications, including child marriage/motherhood, reproductive care and access, fertility, childbearing, contraception, abortion, HIV/STIs, gender-based violence, sexual pleasure, and menopause. In these forceful dispatches, a consistent human rights perspective emphasizes women’s control, autonomy, and agency in all stages of their lives. A sampling of topics covered: Girl child marriage: a persistent global women’s health and human rights violation Investigating challenges and resilience among women living with obstetric fistula in Kenya A qualitative exploration of mainstream and social media reflections on abortion A continuum of severity of sexual intimate partner violence among black women in the United States Economic empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health among women and girls Summarizing an interdisciplinary field on research and practical levels, Global Perspectives on Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Across the Lifecourse will be an invaluable text for undergraduate and graduate courses in a wide range of fields, including public health, global health, women’s studies, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and human rights.

This edited volume offers a rich collection of up-to-date research and critical scholarship from various African institutions on incidents of youth violence, intervention and prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. It integrates thinking, evidence, responses, and debates relating to this topic, laying the basis for fresh insights and innovative strategies. The chapters capture a spectrum of pertinent issues such as economic hardship, lockdowns, sexual and reproductive health, pregnancy, online sexual harassment, xenophobic violence, and micro-aggressions in school contexts, and present guidelines on how countries might learn from successful interventions recently implemented. They explore young people’s access to familial and community resources, state-sponsored initiatives, peer counselling, youth-friendly services, and other relevant structures. Thus, among other things, this volume stimulates further debate on what is driving violence in different African contexts—specifically, how intersectional identities create vulnerabilities to violence—and influences ways of dealing with the issue. This interdisciplinary and cross-cutting volume serves as a vital resource for experts at universities, in international organisations, civil society groups and intergovernmental organisations who wish to both analyse and take action to address and prevent the type of violence that currently afflicts young people sub-Saharan Africa today.