ASRHR in Ethiopia: reviewing progress over the last 20 years and looking ahead to the next 10 years

Abstract

Over the last two decades, improvements in Ethiopia’s socio-economic context, the prioritization of health and development in the national agenda, and ambitious national health and development policies and programmes have contributed to improvements in the living standards and well-being of the population as a whole including adolescents. Improvements have occurred in a number of health outcomes, for example reduction in levels of harmful practices i.e., in child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), reduction in adolescent childbearing, increase in positive health behaviours, for example adolescent contraceptive use, and maternal health care service use. However, this progress has been uneven. As we look to the next 10 years, Ethiopia must build on the progress made, and move ahead understanding and overcoming challenges and making full use of opportunities by (i) recommitting to strong political support for ASRHR policies and programmes and to sustaining this support in the next stage of policy and strategy development (ii) strengthening investment in and financing of interventions to meet the SRH needs of adolescents (iii) ensuring laws and policies are appropriately communicated, applied and monitored (iv) ensuring strategies are evidence-based and extend the availability of age-disaggregated data on SRHR, and that implementation of these strategies is managed well (v) enabling meaningful youth engagement by institutionalizing adolescent participation as an essential element of all programmes intended to benefit adolescents, and (vi) consolidating gains in the area of SRH while strategically broadening other areas without diluting the ASRHR focus.

Sexual and reproductive health in Ethiopia: gains and reflections over the past two decades

“…The commentaries in this supplement highlight facilitators and barriers to achieving the goals of these strategic plans. Akwara et al and Admassu et al advocate for a broad policy framework, including expanding enabling laws, policies, and funding to ensure that quality SRH services are adequately extended to reach the youth population [ 12 , 33 ]. The current, and third, AY health strategy provides key parameters for advancing AY health: it sets key objectives and highlights leadership and accountability, including youth leadership and engagement, as critical strategies to meet the government’s FP2030 commitment to improve access to AYSRH-responsive services and to achieve better AYSRH outcomes [ 6 , 33 ].…”

“…The following section presents research focused on the adolescent and youth population—exploring the rapidly changing environment and social norms that affect their attitudes and behaviors and guide the debut and early stages of their reproductive lives. Akwara et al review the progress made on adolescent reproductive health indicators over the past two decades [ 12 ]. Erulkar and Lindstrom et al provide evidence on how these changing norms impact the ages of first marriage and first sex [ 13 , 14 ].…”

Pregnancy coercion, correlates, and associated modern contraceptive use within a nationally representative sample of Ethiopian women

“… 29 , 30 Moreover, gender and power disparities, as evidenced by high rates of child marriage, IPV, and female genital cutting, 27 may impede women’s access to and use of contraception. While Ethiopia has made considerable progress in improving access to reproductive health services nationally, regional disparities persist among several key reproductive health outcomes; 31 , 32 specifically, 16% of women in rural areas have an unmet need for contraception, compared to only 8% of urban women. 26 There is further variation in access to reproductive health services across regions (i.e.…”

“… 32 , 33 Regional disparities are compounded with high rates of child marriage, IPV, and female genital mutilation. 27 , 31 The percentage of women aged 15–19 who have begun childbearing ranges from 23% in Afar to 3% in Addis Ababa. 27 Contextual data is necessary to understand reasons for contraceptive non-use and the potential role of the partner in method selection, uptake, and continuation in order to ensure human rights components of autonomy and self-determination are upheld within Ethiopia.…”

Correction to: ASRHR in Ethiopia: reviewing progress over the last 20 years and looking ahead to the next 10 years

“…After publication of this article [1], the authors reported that the author name 'Venkatraman Chandra Mouli' was incorrectly written as 'Venkatraman Chandra Moulli' . Also, the author name 'Lamessa Oljira' was incorrectly written as 'Lamessa Oljiira' .…”