Prevention of adolescent pregnancy in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review of national policies

Literature Reviews
2020
14 p.
Periodical title
International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Despite the existence of preventive policies across sub-Saharan Africa, countries within the sub-region lead global rankings for rates of adolescent pregnancy. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review national policies on the prevention of adolescent pregnancy in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, national policy strengths were seen in relation to their political recognition, and all aspects of policy formulation. Policy implementation strengths and weaknesses were identified, the latter in relation to clear descriptions of financial resources. Importantly, the absence of measurable and time-bound objectives or formal evaluation of policy effectiveness confounds demonstration of what has been delivered and achieved. Youth involvement was notably absent in many policies. For future policy-setting, governments and policy-makers should make efforts to engage young people in policy development and to be transparent, realistic and address the necessary financial resourcing. They should set quantifiable policy objectives that provide a basis for assessing the adoption, uptake and effectiveness of policies in relation to measurable objectives.

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IIEP