INTRODUCTION
Synthesising findings of nine peer-reviewed articles and five pieces of grey literature, this systematic review compiles current literature on approaches to improve sexual and reproductive health (SRH) intervention utilisation and outcomes for adolescents in humanitarian settings, and reports that almost all articles indicated some outcome improvements related to SRH, mostly in knowledge and attitudes.
There are two key reasons to build gender equitable health systems in post-conflict contexts. First, ensuring that health system reform builds gender equitable systems will improve the operation and responsiveness of health systems with the goal of improving health outcomes. And second, emerging research suggests that gender equality facilitates broader social and economic wellbeing, as well as stability. Ensuring that the reconstruction and reform of health systems creates gender equitable systems can facilitate gender equality.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Common strategies
Some common strategies for these approaches and programmes included use of peer workers, involving adolescents in a programmatic role, community engagement efforts, mobile clinics, and school-based activities.
Evidence base should be strengthened
Despite international commitments to better serve adolescents in this area of health, there is a scarcity of high-quality literature showing robustly measured positive outcomes from programmatic implementation in this setting. Half of the articles reported no improvements on other dimensions of SRH. Hence, future interventions could benefit from a gender transformative approach, targeting both young men and girls.
High quality and sex- and age-disaggregated data needed
There must also be high quality and sex- and age-disaggregated data collected on SRH intervention outcomes in humanitarian settings.
Limitations exist in the current evidence
There are also vital dimensions to SRH that were not discussed in the literature including prevention of maternal-to-child transmission, safe abortion, post-abortion care, urogenital fistulae or female genital mutilation.
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