By Babu Ahmed
“The total lock down imposed in response to the second wave of the pandemic has led to challenges like difficulty in accessing essential SRH services and information.”
The United Nations statistics revealed that up to 16 per cent of the world’s population which is equivalent to 1.2 billion people, are adolescents aged 10-19 years. The World Health Organization reports reveal that many often die due to several factors such as; homicide, suicide, violence, motor accidents, pregnancy and childbirth related complications, among others. According to a UNICEF report on Adolescent health and well-being, “an estimated 1.2 million adolescents die every year and mostly from preventable causes.”
Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world with the country’s population annual growth estimated at 3.0{16c1ebd06224a3e5e530fa20e06ebb4793489232436e32840ced6f3bb5684d4e} (UNFPA). Adolescents in Uganda constitute a quarter on the nation’s population, many of which have limited access to quality health and social services among others.
In Uganda, on top of the fact that access to adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health information and services is still lacking, the lock down imposed by the government restricting movement of people with the aim of curbing the spread of the pandemic has worsened the situation. This gives adolescents limited choices to issues relating to quality promotion of healthy sexual behaviors, condom uses, access to family planning services and information, abortion and post-abortion care, access to general information on sexual and reproductive health issues, and management of Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Whereas the government of Uganda has adopted a number of policies and strategies to address some of the problems faced by young people in the country which among others, include the National Adolescent Policy for Uganda 2004, School Health Policy for Uganda as well as the Standards and Guidelines for reducing Maternal Mortality from Unsafe Abortions in Uganda (April, 2005), finalization and implementation of these policies is still wanting.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened an already intricate situation in the country. The total lock down imposed in response to the second wave of the pandemic has led to challenges like difficulty in accessing essential Sexual and Reproductive Health services such as modern contraceptives, including condoms. The lock down has also led to disruptions in education, exposing young people to the risk of Gender Based Violence as well as getting exposed to Sexually Transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. Furthermore, the increment in internet costs has made it worse for the many unemployed youth. This has further affected access to information.
As a result of the above, I call upon government to finalize all the pending policies such as the National School Health Policy, that will enable young people access services and information as well as ensuring that those in existence are implemented. This will assist in supporting young people address the impediments that have led to the unmet needs of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and information. This can be achieved as long as there is political will.
The writer is a Project Officer at Paradigm for Social Justice and Development (PSD).
