scholarly journals Perspectives of adolescent and young adults on poverty-related stressors: a qualitative study in Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e027047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J Hall ◽  
Melissa R Garabiles ◽  
Jacobus de Hoop ◽  
Audrey Pereira ◽  
Leah Prencipe ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo define key stressors experienced and coping behaviours within poor agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa.DesignDescriptive qualitative study incorporating inductive thematic analysis.Participants81 participants purposely sampled, stratified by age (adolescents and young adults) and sexSettingThe study was conducted in villages in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania.ResultsStressors were thematically grouped into those directly related to poverty and the lack of basic necessities (eg, food insecurity), and additional stressors (eg, drought) that worsen poverty-related stress. Impacts on functioning, health and well-being and key coping behaviours, both positive and negative, were identified. The findings together inform a more nuanced view of stress within these contexts.ConclusionAlthough participants were asked to provide general reflections about stress in their community, the salience of poverty-related stressors was ubiquitously reflected in respondents’ responses. Poverty-related stressors affect development, well-being and gender-based violence. Future research should focus on interventions to alleviate poverty-related stress to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. e0202413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Cooper ◽  
Natalie Leon ◽  
Hazel Namadingo ◽  
Kirsten Bobrow ◽  
Andrew J. Farmer

Author(s):  
Muluken Dessalegn Muluneh ◽  
Virginia Stulz ◽  
Lyn Francis ◽  
Kingsley Agho

This study aimed to systematically review studies that examined the prevalence of gender based violence (GBV) that included intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-IPV among women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This evidence is an important aspect to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) target of eliminating all forms of violence in SSA. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Ovid Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science were used to source articles with stringent eligibility criteria. Studies on GBV in SSA countries that were published in English from 2008 to 2019 were included. A random effect meta-analysis was used. Fifty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of IPV among women was 44%, the past year-pooled prevalence of IPV was 35.5% and non-IPV pooled prevalence was 14%. The highest prevalence rates of IPV that were reported included emotional (29.40%), physical (25.87%) and sexual (18.75%) violence. The sub-regional analysis found that women residing in Western (30%) and Eastern (25%) African regions experienced higher levels of emotional violence. Integrated mitigation measures to reduce GBV in SSA should focus mainly on IPV in order to achieve the SDG’s that will lead to sustainable changes in women’s health.


Author(s):  
Ifeyinwa C Akamike ◽  
Chigozie J Uneke ◽  
Henry C Uro-Chukwu ◽  
Ijeoma N Okedo-Alex ◽  
Onyedikachi E Chukwu

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. e000764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo-Anne Lee Geere ◽  
Moa Cortobius ◽  
Jonathan Harold Geere ◽  
Charlotte Christiane Hammer ◽  
Paul R Hunter

IntroductionThe work of carrying water falls mainly on women and children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas. While concerns have been raised, how water carriage is associated with health of the water carrier is not clear. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on whether, and how, water carriage is associated with the water carrier’s health.MethodsA systematic review of literature was conducted, searching Embase; Medline; Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index; Web of Science Arts and Humanities Citation Index; International Initiative for Impact Evaluation website; WHO Virtual Health Sciences Library and WHO African index medicus, from inception to 8 November 2017.ResultsForty-two studies were included. Their ability to demonstrate cause and effect relationships was limited by study design and fair or poor methodological quality. Overall, the studies suggest that water carriage is associated with negative aspects of the water carriers’ health. There is moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, perinatal health problems and violence against vulnerable people, and inconclusive evidence of an association with stress or self-reported mental health and general health status.ConclusionIn many circumstances, water carriage is a potential barrier to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 target ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’ and SDG 3 ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. Efforts should focus on providing water on premises, and where this is not possible, providing water close to home and reducing risk of gender-based violence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85
Author(s):  
Judith A Oloo

Compared to most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya has, for a long time, enjoyed relative peace. However, this perceived peace has been marked with several incidents of internal clashes exposing women to large-scale gender-based sexual violence. While sexual violence is generally common in peacetime, it is exacerbated in conflict situations such as the post-election violence of 2007–2008 which saw mass incidents of rape and unprecedented killings in Kenya. This happened despite a robust legal framework prohibiting sexual violence. This article shows that the state’s to take cognisance of certain issues uniquely affecting women in Kenya in various aspects and contexts accumulate to disadvantage women, thereby making them more vulnerable. Second, the state’s failure to respond adequately to the unique plight of women during peacetime further exacerbates their suffering during armed conflicts. Thus, in a bid to find a better legal framework to protect women during conflict in Kenya, this article analyses the vulnerability theory of human rights which acknowledges that humans are generally and naturally vulnerable to certain elements. It concludes by stating that only when the vulnerability of women is understood and appreciated, can the law be effectively used to protect women against sexual and gender-based violence in conflict situations, among other hardships that women face, just by virtue of being women. It proposes among others a multidimensional approach including law reform, strict implementation of the existing law, economic inclusion of women and more investment in women as a remedy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 124-158
Author(s):  
Prerna Banati ◽  
Christina Bacalso

Designing and delivering effective programs for adolescents and youth requires high-quality evidence that is easily available to decision makers. Yet while adolescence as a unique development period has gained policy attention in recent years, and there has been a growth in research, priorities for research investment remain unclear. This paper provides a panoramic view of adolescent development research to review what evidence exists and how evidence is mapped. Our approach interrogated studies mapped by evidence maps (including the subset evidence gap maps or EGMs). Our findings have implications for future directions of research on positive youth development (PYD) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): The analysis showed that while most evidence maps exist in the adolescent protection, safety, and security domain, most studies focus on outcomes related to well-being and social and emotional health. There are gaps in demographic groupings and contexts studied. For example, while gender and sex inequities were the most prevalent in the studies identified, though seen in less than 1/5 of the studies analyzed, disability appears in only 3%. Housing, participation, and information communication technologies are researched relatively rarely. Rigorous research in conflict or humanitarian settings is absent. Additionally, while most impact evaluations are conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Latin America, the Middle East and North America were poorly represented regions. This article reflects on the state of the evidence, argues for a more thoughtful approach to equity in adolescent research, and calls for a stronger link between research, policy, and practice in LMICs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
MaryAnne Iwara

Many of the most pressing conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa today—including violent extremism, sexual and gender-based violence, pastoralist/farmer conflicts, and criminal banditry—are shaped by local, community-level drivers. Despite these local drivers, however, international peacebuilding approaches often ignore or neglect bottom-up, grassroots strategies for addressing them. Often, international efforts to contribute to the prevention and management of local conflicts depend heavily on large-scale, expensive, and external interventions like peacekeepers, while under-investing in or by-passing traditional/customary mechanisms and resources that uphold locally defined values of peace, tolerance, solidarity, and respect. Recognizing that these traditional and customary practices themselves sometimes have their own legacies of violence and inequality, this policy note emphasizes the possibility of combining aspects of traditional peacebuilding mechanisms with international conflict management approaches to harness the benefits of both.


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