• Sexuality and reproductive rights

Sexuality and reproductive rights

This report is an overview of the strategies children adopt for dealing with sexuality and relationships in the face of the HIV/AIDS scourge in sub-Saharan Africa. It is aimed at providing stakeholders with a coherent rights-orientated and child-oriented knowledge base to advocate for the development of a sexual and reproductive health agenda.

Findings include that children are well aware of the protective benefits of abstaining from sex, of having one sexual partner and using condoms. However, they do not always adopt these strategies to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Children see the benefits of abstaining but they do not see it as being a realistic behaviour for themselves. Faithfulness was also seen as a good option for some children, although it is not clear if children understand the term the way it was originally conceptualised. They often develop their own strategies for avoiding sex, such as being involved in out-of-school activities like sports and clubs, stringing men along for money but not giving sex, and having oral sex or practicing masturbation. Often they do not perceive themselves as being at risk. Children do not value sexual education in schools as they perceive it as being moralistic and negative about sex. They would like to know how they could protect themselves as many are already sexually active, rather than just focusing on the biological side of sex.

Based on these findings, a number of recommendations for policy makers and programme responses are put together. These include:

• programmes should seek to understand and promote children and youth’s own strategies for avoiding HIV/AIDS, and help them develop their capacities for decision making and critical thinking
• traditional gender norms that may have harmful consequences, such as expectations for boys to have many sexual partners, need to be discussed and debated openly with children and adults
• teachers should be trained to be able to provide appropriate and interesting sexual education to children, even those who are currently abstaining 
• the media should be further engaged as a resource of reaching children with sexual and reproductive health messages.
  

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