The purpose of this baseline report is to outline the sexual and reproductive health rights landscape across five African countries; Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The examination of the various country contexts has a specific focus on adolescent girls and young women’s (AGYW) access to sexual reproductive health due to the marginalisation they experience on the basis of their intersecting identities; gender, sexual orientation, economic standing, to name a few. Additionally, there is a need to foreground issues surrounding AGYW’s sexual and reproductive health in light of high maternal mortality rates; unwanted pregnancies; unsafe, clandestine and sometimes illegal abortions; early marriage and adolescent pregnancy (Oronje et al., 2011). The high prevalence of these issues disproportionately affects AGYW and in conjunction with patriarchy, undermines the enjoyment of their human rights.
This baseline study is not a conclusive report but rather the beginning of a mapping of developments, challenges and highlights concerning AGYW’s sexual reproductive health rights in the focal countries. It is a contribution to already existing literature (although scanty) and is designed to be used as a resource for various stakeholders such as women’s rights organisations, human rights institutions, non-governmental organisations, governments, activists, researchers, policy-makers, donors and generally those with an invested interest in the sexual reproductive health rights of African adolescent girls and young women.
The report opens with the development of sexual reproductive health rights and how they translate within the African context in the form of international human rights treaties. Thereafter, the tone of the report is set through the concepts and context section which outlines the thematic areas that are crucial to the SRHR discourse and intersect with the realisation of said rights. A closer look is taken into SRHR terrain of the focal countries through country contexts of Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Gaps then follow this and recommendations for relevant stakeholders.
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