Knowledge, experiences, and access to sexual and reproductive health services among refugee, migrant, or displaced girls and women in Africa
Citation: Ivanova O, Rai M, Kemigisha E. A Systematic Review of Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge, Experiences and Access to Services among Refugee, Migrant and Displaced Girls and Young Women in Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018;15(8):1583.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The Friedrich-Baur-Stiftung, Medical Faculty of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles that described knowledge, experiences, and access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services among refugee, migrant, or displaced girls and women aged 10-24 years in Africa. They restricted their searches to articles published in English before March 2018. The authors included 15 studies from nine countries in Africa.
What was found: Girls and young women aged 10-24 years had limited knowledge and awareness of contraceptive methods, sexually-transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Adolescent women had limited access to menstrual hygiene products and contraception. They frequently experienced gender-based and sexual violence and abuse. The lack of literacy about sexual and reproductive health was attributed to age-related stigma and barriers to accessing services.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that the lack of knowledge about contraceptives may lead to insufficient family planning and increased morbidity and mortality among girls and women. There is a need for targeted interventions and programmes to improve SRH knowledge and access to services for these vulnerable populations.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of sex and age.
This summary was prepared by Riwa Deghaim, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by William Summerskill.