Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health in Asia and the Pacific

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Gray ◽  
Peter Azzopardi ◽  
Elissa Kennedy ◽  
Elise Willersdorf ◽  
Mick Creati
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Adolescent Mothers ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
National Level ◽  
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Reporting Templates ◽  
Adolescent Reproductive Health ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Map Data

Data on adolescent reproductive health (ARH) are required to inform evidence-based policies and programs. The reports of national-level household surveys such as the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) are important sources of such data in developing countries. The aim of this study was to map data on ARH from DHS and MICS reports from selected countries in the Asia and Pacific regions. The DHS and MICS reports for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and Vietnam were reviewed. Data on 128 indicators, including ARH outcomes, outcomes for babies of adolescent mothers, and adolescents’ access to health information and services, were mapped. Available data are limited because of the omission of cohorts such as young adolescents (10-14 years old) and, in many surveys, unmarried women; the omission of important indicators; and failure to report data disaggregated by age. DHS and MICS reports have limited capacity to inform policy and programs to improve ARH. A review of DHS and MICS sampling strategies and reporting templates, and a consideration of alternative data collection strategies, are warranted.

scholarly journals Including married adolescents in adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS policy

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Bruce ◽  
Shelley Clark
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Sexually Active ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Adolescent Reproductive Health ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Sizable Fraction ◽  
Hiv Aids

The majority of sexually active girls aged 15–19 in developing countries are married, and married adolescent girls tend to have higher rates of HIV infection than their sexually active, unmarried peers. Married adolescent girls represent a sizable fraction of adolescents at risk and experience some of the highest rates of HIV prevalence of any group. Nonetheless, married adolescents have been marginal in adolescent HIV/AIDS policies and programs and have not been the central subjects for programs aimed at adult married women. This paper offers a partial explanation for why married adolescents have so often been overlooked, the reasons why marriage might bring elevated risk of HIV, initial analytic tools to assist policymakers in determining how to accord appropriate levels of priority to the marriage process, five brief case studies, and a menu of potential policy interventions and actions to make married adolescents an integral part of reproductive health and HIV-prevention initiatives.

scholarly journals Orchestrating the Ocean Using a National Ocean Policy: The Case of the Solomon Islands

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy M. Hills ◽  
Claire Lajaunie ◽  
Payal N. Maharaj ◽  
Pierre Mazzega
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
National Level ◽  
Regional Policies ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
Ocean Policy ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Policy Evolution ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Single Cluster

Oceans are governed by multiple policies at international, regional and national levels. National level policies have traditionally been sector-based, covering fisheries, tourism, environment etc. Recently more integrated and holistic National Ocean Policies (NOP) have been promulgated. The Pacific Ocean also has well-developed regional ocean-related policies spanning decades. The work presented here uses lexicometric analysis to map the interlinkages between regional and national policies to determine if they are evolving synergistically. Focusing on the Solomon Islands, due to its reliance on the ocean and producing a NOP in 2018, 13,622 expressions were extracted from the corpus of 8 national and 10 regional ocean-related policies. Network analysis displayed limited differentiation between the NOP, national sector-based policies and regional policies. Clustering of policies showed progressive splitting of policies from a single cluster, rather than by formation of a number of separate clusters. This behaviour reflects the thematic interlocking of policies: all share many themes, and the more integrative policies add a few additional sectoral themes. The themes rarely addressed in the corpus include energy, agriculture, pollution and education. The NOP was predominantly built on existing national or regional policies and their main themes rather than setting a new direction in ocean governance. The benefit of the NOP may be less about its content itself, but the creation of allied cross-ministerial architecture. With the intense pressure on the oceans and its resources in present times, there will be a growing need for more substantive policy evolution.

Mangrove ecosystem services and the potential for carbon revenue programmes in Solomon Islands

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
KIMBERLEY WARREN-RHODES ◽  
ANNE-MAREE SCHWARZ ◽  
LINDA NG BOYLE ◽  
JOELLE ALBERT ◽  
STEPHEN SUTI AGALO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Mangrove Ecosystem ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Religious Denomination ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Potential Carbon

SUMMARYMangroves are an imperilled biome whose protection and restoration through payments for ecosystem services (PES) can contribute to improved livelihoods, climate mitigation and adaptation. Interviews with resource users in three Solomon Islands villages suggest a strong reliance upon mangrove goods for subsistence and cash, particularly for firewood, food and building materials. Village-derived economic data indicates a minimum annual subsistence value from mangroves of US$ 345–1501 per household. Fish and nursery habitat and storm protection were widely recognized and highly valued mangrove ecosystem services. All villagers agreed that mangroves were under threat, with firewood overharvesting considered the primary cause. Multivariate analyses revealed village affiliation and religious denomination as the most important factors determining the use and importance of mangrove goods. These factors, together with gender, affected users’ awareness of ecosystem services. The importance placed on mangrove services did not differ significantly by village, religious denomination, gender, age, income, education or occupation. Mangrove ecosystem surveys are useful as tools for raising community awareness and input prior to design of PES systems. Land tenure and marine property rights, and how this complexity may both complicate and facilitate potential carbon credit programmes in the Pacific, are discussed.

Developing a USSD-based mobile phone app to provide adolescents with sexual reproductive health information: A human-centered design approach (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Macharia ◽  
Antoni Pérez-Navarro ◽  
Irene Inwani ◽  
Ruth Nduati ◽  
Carme Carrion
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Resource Limited Settings ◽  
Human Centered Design ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Sexual Reproductive Health ◽  
Resource Limited ◽  
Adolescent Reproductive Health

BACKGROUND Adolescent pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections continue to impact 15 – 19-year-olds across the globe. The lack of sexual reproductive health information in resource-limited settings can often be due to cultural and societal attitudes to adolescent sexual reproductive health. Innovative approaches, including mobile phone technologies, are needed to address the need for adolescent reproductive health information. OBJECTIVE To design and develop a mobile app prototype to provide confidential adolescent reproductive health information on demand and evaluate its usability and user experience. METHODS A human-centered design methodology was applied. This practice framework allowed the perspectives and feedback of adolescent users to be included in the iterative design process. Field usability testing enabled the adolescents to provide feedback on the functionality, usability, and usefulness of the app. RESULTS During the usability test, 62 (54.9%) of the adolescents that were followed-up had used the app at least once, 30 (48.4%) of these were male participants and 32 (51.6%) female. The app was described as ‘very interesting’ to use by 44 (70.9%) participants, 20 male and 24 female. The content was deemed to be either ‘perfectly’ or ‘well targeted’ on sexual reproductive health by 60 (96.7%) adolescents, and the app was rated ‘best app’ by 45 (72.6%) adolescents, 27 female and 18 male, with a p-value = 0.011. CONCLUSIONS A mobile phone app is a feasible and acceptable way to deliver adolescent sexual reproductive health information in resource-limited settings. The USSD mobile phone technology could deliver confidential information on demand.

Transcending the colonial gaze: Empathy, agency and community in the South Pacific photography of John Watt Beattie1

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Solomon Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
The South ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Norfolk Island ◽  
The Church

For three months in 1906, John Watt Beattie, the noted Australian photographer – at the invitation of the Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, Cecil Wilson – travelling on the church vessel the Southern Cross, photographed people and sites associated with the Melanesian Mission on Norfolk Island and present-day Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. Beattie reproduced many of the 1500-plus photographs from that trip, which he sold in various formats from his photographic studio in Hobart, Tasmania. The photographs constitute a priceless collection of Pacific images that began to be used very quickly in a variety of publications, with or without attribution. I shall examine some of these photographs in the context of the ethos of the Melanesian Mission, British colonialism in the Solomon Islands, and Beattie’s previous photographic experience. I shall argue that Beattie first exhibited a colonial gaze of objectifying his dehumanized exotic subjects (e.g. as ‘savages’ and ‘cannibals’) but with increased familiarity with them, became empathetic and admiring. In this change of attitude, I argue that he effectively transcended his colonial gaze to produce photographs of great empathy, beauty and longevity. At the same time, he became more critical of the colonial enterprise in the Pacific, whether government, commercial or church.

EFFECTIVE OF INTERVENTION SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE SITUATION OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN A LUOI DISTRICT, THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-44
Author(s):  
Trang Dao Nguyen Dieu ◽  
Huy Nguyen Vu Quoc ◽  
Thanh Cao Ngoc ◽  
Ngoc Phan Thi Bich
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Education Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Health Staff ◽  
Reproductive Health Care ◽  
Adolescent Reproductive Health

Objectives: To describe the knowledge, attitudes, practices of reproductive health care among adolescent girls in A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue province and to identify the related factors to reproductive health care in adolescent girls. To assess the results of intervention solutions of reproductive health care in adolescent girls. Methods: A cross-sectional study design. A study design for community intervention comparision with control group. Results: The percentage of adolescents with not good knowledge, attitudes and practices on reproductive health care has accounted for fairly high as respectively: 85.9%, 73.9%, 72.9%. There is an a relationship between education level, adolescent stage with general knowledge on adolescent reproductive health care (p < 0.05). There is a relationship between ethnicity, education level, adolescent stage with the general attitude on adolescent reproductive health care (p < 0.05). There is a relationship between knowledge, attitude, education level, adolescent stage, economic condition, the condition of the family living at the percentage of general practice on adolescent reproductive health care (p < 0.05). The effective of intervention: Good knowlegde increase from 10% to 24.1%. Good attitude increase from 16.7% to 61.4%. Good practice increase from 27.1% to 42.9%. The effective of intervention: change knowlegde: 21.6%, change attitude: 54.2%, change practice: 34.6%. Conclusion: There is need to enhance the communication and education reproductive health for aldolescent girls and to enhance communication knowlegde and skills for reproductive health staff. Keywords: adolescents, get married early, reproductive health.

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