New research in sexual and reproductive health and rights for promoting social change in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

When the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) gave birth to the science of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Cairo, Egypt in 1994, the sub-Saharan African region provided sordid social examples of the abuse of sexuality and sexual rights that warranted the emergence of the discipline. At that time, it was evident that while the region was characterized by high rates of fertility and high population growth rates, it did so within a context of several absurdities that affected women. These included harmful traditional practices; gender inequality and gender-based violence; the feminization of poverty; and the marginalization of women in political and social lives. Participants at the conference provided evidence indicating that these adverse social, economic, and cultural experiences, accounted for the high rate of maternal deaths, unwanted pregnancies, teenage pregnancies, unsafe abortion, and reproductive morbidities experienced in the African region as compared to other world regions.