Adolescent woman receiving counseling and contraceptive from an eHA-ANRiN service provider during routine Adolescent Health Service delivery in Kaduna
Around the world, Gender and other Social norms have had a tremendous impact on the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) of young people, especially Adolescent Girls. Cultural constructs of gender shape expectations related to sexuality and play an essential part in defining what roles and behaviors are considered appropriate for Adolescent Girls and Boys.
Normative expectations embedded in many societies about gender and sexuality create a double standard – which may manifest differently in various settings – that typically encourages sexual liberty for men and demands sexual constraint from women. This values purity and virginity above all else for girls while giving adolescent boys more freedom, including the room to explore, experiment, and engage in sexual relationships. This double standard also places the majority of the burden on females to reject sexual advances from males and to take precautions to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with females often blamed for STIs and unintended pregnancies. This contributes to the idea that reproductive health is a female responsibility with no role for men. Existing social norms that place men at an advantage with increased access to opportunities also affect young women. Due to these norms, men are more likely to control resources and make decisions for their partners, and may not allow their partners to use contraception. These norms also limit the educational opportunities for young women, marginalizing them from obtaining access to accurate information on sexual and reproductive health.
To make SRH services more accessible to young people, especially adolescent girls and women, eHA ANRiN is addressing gender norms at the community level and building a supportive environment by addressing social and gender norms in addition to increasing individual knowledge that helps in reducing stigma. This effort aims at improving youth-friendly health services at the community level through a more holistic package of interventions that include comprehensive sex education, raising awareness about services to generate more demand among young people for sexual and reproductive health services, and building community support that will decrease stigma and encourage youth to engage in discussions about SRH and seek out services through advocacies, stakeholders engagement, awareness creation at key live events. In addition, eHA ANRiN is providing AHS services and a variety of contraceptive methods to Adolescent Married Women aged 15-19years old to bridge the existing unmet need for contraception. These actions are already having a greater cumulative impact on improving uptake of AHS services, thereby increasing the state’s modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) and explicitly challenging discriminatory gender norms that put Married Adolescent Girls at a disadvantaged position through awareness creation and balanced counseling services.
