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Full-Text Articles in Women's Health
What Do We Know About The Hiv Risk Characteristics Of Adolescent Girls And Young Women In Zambia? Findings From Dreams Implementation Science Research, Population Council
What Do We Know About The Hiv Risk Characteristics Of Adolescent Girls And Young Women In Zambia? Findings From Dreams Implementation Science Research, Population Council
HIV and AIDS
The Population Council is conducting implementation science research in Zambia and other countries across sub-Saharan Africa to build needed evidence to inform community-based, girl-centered HIV-prevention programming. Critical to this process is understanding adolescent girls’ and young women’s (AGYWs’) knowledge, attitudes, sexual behaviors, and characteristics of their sexual partnerships that may put them at risk of HIV acquisition. This results brief summarizes key findings from a cross-sectional survey of 1,915 AGYW, half of whom were 15–19 years old and the other half 20–24 years old, residing in urban districts of Lusaka and Ndola. The findings in this brief were shared at …
Status Of Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In Zambia: Contraception And Family Planning, Preventing Unsafe Abortion And Accessing Post Abortion Care, And Maternal Health, Population Council
Status Of Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In Zambia: Contraception And Family Planning, Preventing Unsafe Abortion And Accessing Post Abortion Care, And Maternal Health, Population Council
Reproductive Health
In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development affirmed that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are human rights. The Government of the Republic of Zambia has fully committed to fulfilling the SRHR of all people by ratifying 11 international instruments of law. This brief is Part 1 of a three-part series entitled “Status of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Zambia,” reporting on progress, gaps, and existing challenges in SRHR. Using a human rights–based approach, the Government of Zambia and collaborators, with technical facilitation by the Population Council, conducted an assessment of the status of SRHR …
Status Of Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In Zambia: Violence Against Women And Hiv/Aids Prevention And Treatment, Population Council
Status Of Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In Zambia: Violence Against Women And Hiv/Aids Prevention And Treatment, Population Council
Reproductive Health
In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development affirmed that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are human rights. The Government of the Republic of Zambia has fully committed to fulfilling the SRHR of all people by ratifying 11 international instruments of law. This brief is Part 3 of a three-part series entitled “Status of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Zambia,” reporting on progress, gaps, and existing challenges in SRHR. Using a human rights–based approach, the Government of Zambia and collaborators, with technical facilitation by the Population Council, conducted an assessment of the status of SRHR …
Assessment Of Comprehensive Hiv-Risk Reduction Programming For Adolescent Girls And Young Women: Implementation Science Research In Zambia, Population Council
Assessment Of Comprehensive Hiv-Risk Reduction Programming For Adolescent Girls And Young Women: Implementation Science Research In Zambia, Population Council
HIV and AIDS
The Population Council is conducting implementation research to build needed evidence to inform decisionmaking around effective implementation of community-based, girl-centered interventions and to assess their effectiveness in reducing HIV vulnerability among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW)—a population in which AIDS is the leading cause of death in the region. Learnings from this study in Zambia and similar ones in Kenya and Malawi will be valuable for informing each country and the region how to implement AGYW programming that goes beyond the health sector to reduce AGYW's vulnerability to HIV.
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Savings Account, Population Council
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Savings Account, Population Council
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Through the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP), the Population Council and partners implemented a social, health, and economic asset-building program for over 10,000 vulnerable adolescent girls aged 10–19 years in Zambia. The AGEP intervention was comprised of three major components: 1) safe spaces groups in which girls met once a week over the course of two years for training on sexual and reproductive health, life skills, and financial education; 2) a health voucher that girls could use at contracted private and public facilities for a package of general wellness and sexual and reproductive health services; and 3) a savings account …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report—Executive Summary, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report—Executive Summary, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme (AGEP) was an ambitious project directed toward changing girls’ lives in a significant and meaningful way across areas of education, sexual and reproductive health, marriage and fertility, and experience of violence. This Executive Summary of the project’s findings shows that, overall, the AGEP cohort data, and lessons they have generated from the AGEP are rich, nuanced, and important for informing the next generation of programs for adolescents in Zambia and elsewhere. Even though the study is still under way, and the full longer-term effects of AGEP remain to be seen, the information presented in this …
Scaling Up Family Planning In Zambia—Part 2: The Cost Of Scaling Up Family Planning Services, David Collins, Colin Gilmartin
Scaling Up Family Planning In Zambia—Part 2: The Cost Of Scaling Up Family Planning Services, David Collins, Colin Gilmartin
Reproductive Health
This costing study is Part 2 of a broader implementation research study designed to establish the feasibility of integrating successful interventions and lessons from the Scaling Up Family Planning (SUFP) project into Zambia’s health system at the conclusion of the project, and to contribute to the global learning on scaling up family planning services. The main contribution of the costing study was to examine the cost implications in determining the scope and pace of scale up. Challenges experienced during the project reportedly included lack of equipment and limited space in some facilities, government staff shortages, and irregular access to supplies …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme In Zambia: Qualitative Evaluation Report, Zoe Duby, Chipo Natasha Zulu, Karen Austrian
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme In Zambia: Qualitative Evaluation Report, Zoe Duby, Chipo Natasha Zulu, Karen Austrian
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) reaches over 10,000 vulnerable girls 10–19 years old in five urban and five rural sites spread across four provinces in Zambia. The program works to build adolescent girls’ social, health, and economic assets, providing them with key skills and opportunities to help them transition from adolescence to adulthood in a healthy way. This report presents these valuable insight into the views and experiences of girls who were involved in the AGEP program, as well as the perceptions of program mentors, the girls’ parents, and community leaders. In addition, these findings highlight the areas in …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme (AGEP) was a social, health, and economic asset-building program targeting vulnerable adolescent girls aged 10–19. The Population Council, in partnership with the Young Women’s Christian Association of Zambia, successfully implemented the AGEP program from late 2013 to early 2016. The results presented in this midterm report have implications for recommendations on future programming for adolescent girls in Zambia and elsewhere and should be coupled with burgeoning evidence from AGEP and the literature to adapt programming for vulnerable adolescent girls in order to improve impact. While the underlying root causes of girls’ vulnerabilities are interrelated, it …
Scaling Up Family Planning In Zambia—Part 1: Assessment And Feasibility Of Maintaining An Innovative Program, Benjamin Bellows, Mary Nambao, Luigi Jaramillo, Roz Fanaiayan, Mardieh Dennis, Karen Hardee
Scaling Up Family Planning In Zambia—Part 1: Assessment And Feasibility Of Maintaining An Innovative Program, Benjamin Bellows, Mary Nambao, Luigi Jaramillo, Roz Fanaiayan, Mardieh Dennis, Karen Hardee
Reproductive Health
To support the Government of Zambia in addressing its reproductive health challenges and in meeting its goals for 2020, the United Kingdom Department for International Development funded a four-year effort to support public sector contraceptive expansion under the Scaling Up Family Planning (SUFP) Project, led by Abt Associates. Launched in 2012, and with a focus on hard-to-reach areas and youth and expanding access to long-acting reversible contraceptives, SUFP was a technical assistance program designed to strengthen the ability of the public sector to provide services to meet the country’s FP2020 goals. SUFP focused on capacity building, infrastructure strengthening, behavior change …
Sexual Behaviors And Biomarkers: Baseline Findings, Population Council
Sexual Behaviors And Biomarkers: Baseline Findings, Population Council
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) is a program for girls ages 10–19 in rural and urban Zambia that aims to find the best ways to improve their social, health, and economic resources. More than 10,000 girls participated in weekly girls’ group meetings, received health vouchers, and opened savings accounts. More than 5,000 girls, unmarried at baseline, were enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial and followed over four years—two years in the program and two years after the program ended. This brief describes the characteristics of enrolled girls at baseline.
Education Sector Response To Early And Unintended Pregnancy: A Review Of Country Experiences In Sub-Saharan Africa, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Ian Mackenzie, Anne Katahoire, Francis Obare, Patricia Machawira
Education Sector Response To Early And Unintended Pregnancy: A Review Of Country Experiences In Sub-Saharan Africa, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Ian Mackenzie, Anne Katahoire, Francis Obare, Patricia Machawira
Reproductive Health
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), early and unintended pregnancy leads to a colossal loss of educational opportunities for girls. Existing studies that show associations between early/unintended pregnancy and school dropout lead to critical questions about how the education sector is responding to the issue in SSA. Conducted from August 2014 to April 2015, this review was devoted to an examination of such responses across six countries: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The review focused on several key issues, including: education-sector policies for pregnant students and adolescent mothers; integration of pregnancy prevention into sexuality education curricula; the school environment as …
Understanding Adolescent Girls' Protection Strategies Against Hiv: An Exploratory Study In Urban Lusaka, Joseph Simbaya, Martha Brady, Allison Stone, Maya Vaughan-Smith
Understanding Adolescent Girls' Protection Strategies Against Hiv: An Exploratory Study In Urban Lusaka, Joseph Simbaya, Martha Brady, Allison Stone, Maya Vaughan-Smith
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This report provides a descriptive analysis of how adolescent girls and young women in Lusaka, Zambia construct notions of risk and safety, perceive reproductive health and HIV risks, and identify behaviors and actions they can take to protect themselves. Findings suggests stronger social support networks, improved access to the range of reproductive health services and products, and safe and supportive spaces for girls would be beneficial. The report points to several areas for potential program attention, including more focused attention on the structural and environmental drivers of girls’ vulnerability.
Rapids Evaluation Final Report 2005-2009 Key Findings, Louis Apicella, Katie D. Schenk, Hena Khan
Rapids Evaluation Final Report 2005-2009 Key Findings, Louis Apicella, Katie D. Schenk, Hena Khan
HIV and AIDS
RAPIDS (Reaching HIV/AIDS Affected People with Integrated Development and Support) is an intervention funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and is designed to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in Zambia. The overall goal of RAPIDS is to improve the quality of life of Zambians affected by HIV and AIDS by expanding successful community-based models of home-based care and support to orphans and vulnerable children and people who are chronically ill, as well as through interventions targeting youth with livelihood opportunities and life-skills training, focusing on initiatives supporting abstinence and being faithful.
Empowering Communities To Respond To Hiv/Aids: Ndola Demonstration Project On Maternal And Child Health: Operations Research Final Report, Hope Humana, Linkages, National Food And Nutrition Commission, Ndola District Health Management Team, Horizons Program, Zambia Integrated Health Project
Empowering Communities To Respond To Hiv/Aids: Ndola Demonstration Project On Maternal And Child Health: Operations Research Final Report, Hope Humana, Linkages, National Food And Nutrition Commission, Ndola District Health Management Team, Horizons Program, Zambia Integrated Health Project
HIV and AIDS
A pre–post intervention study conducted in Zambia by Horizons and local NGOs and governmental organizations demonstrated that HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and infant feeding counseling (IFC) to mothers attending maternal and child health (MCH) clinics are vital components of any mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) reduction strategy, whether or not antiretrovirals (ARVs) are available. These interventions enable mothers to make informed and healthy decisions. Data from the Ndola Demonstration Project yielded encouraging results from efforts to improve the capacity of mothers to make informed decisions about their own health and the health of their infant. The interventions succeeded in raising …
Testing Alternative Channels For Providing Emergency Contraception To Young Women, John P. Skibiak, Mangala Chambeshi-Moyo, Yusuf Ahmed
Testing Alternative Channels For Providing Emergency Contraception To Young Women, John P. Skibiak, Mangala Chambeshi-Moyo, Yusuf Ahmed
Reproductive Health
In September 1997, the Population Council and Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) launched a 15-month study to identify and explore the range of issues relating to the introduction of emergency contraception (EC) within a developing country context. The study allowed clinic-based family planning providers to accumulate enough first-hand experience to be able to identify strategies for overcoming difficulties associated with the introduction or delivery of EC services. One issue on most participants’ minds was the need to expand the delivery of EC services toward young women, especially out-of-school women, who are harder to reach. Participants recommended that future research activities …
Testing Strategies To Improve Access To Emergency Contraception Pills: Prescription Vs. Prophylactic Distribution, John P. Skibiak, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata
Testing Strategies To Improve Access To Emergency Contraception Pills: Prescription Vs. Prophylactic Distribution, John P. Skibiak, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata
Reproductive Health
This report is the second in a series of research summaries produced in connection with the operations research project “Enhancing Access to Family Planning Services through the Introduction of Emergency Contraception.” Launched in September 1997, the project explores the many issues surrounding the introduction and delivery of emergency contraception services in a developing country context. The study described in this report compares two different approaches to overcoming barriers that prevent women from accessing emergency contraception during the 72-hour period when the first dosage of emergency contraception pills (ECPs) must be taken. In one approach, new family planning (FP) acceptors were …
Comparing Alternative Products In The Provision Of Emergency Contraception, John P. Skibiak, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata
Comparing Alternative Products In The Provision Of Emergency Contraception, John P. Skibiak, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata
Reproductive Health
This report is the third in a series of summaries produced in connection with the operations research project “Enhancing Access to Family Planning Services through the Introduction of Emergency Contraception.” Launched in September 1997, the project explores the many issues surrounding the introduction and delivery of emergency contraception services in a developing country context. The study compares the introduction of two different emergency contraception pills—the combined oral contraceptive PC-4, introduced in Zambia in 1997, and the progestin-only contraceptive Postinor-2, introduced by this study in the following year. Client histories showed only minor differences in the attitudes of emergency contraception users …
Emergency Contraception In Zambia: Setting A New Agenda For Research And Action, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata, John P. Skibiak
Emergency Contraception In Zambia: Setting A New Agenda For Research And Action, Yusuf Ahmed, M. Ketata, John P. Skibiak
Reproductive Health
This report summarizes the activities and findings of the first phase of the operations research study, “Enhancing Access to Family Planning Services through the Introduction of Emergency Contraception.” Launched in September 1997, the study was designed to explore a broad range of issues relating to emergency contraception within a developing country context. With financial and technical support from the United States Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the British Department for International Development (DFID), the study consists of an initial exploratory exercise and a subsequent research phase. The report is divided into …
Covert Contraceptive Use: Prevalence, Motivations, And Consequences, Ann E. Biddlecom, Bolaji M. Fapohunda
Covert Contraceptive Use: Prevalence, Motivations, And Consequences, Ann E. Biddlecom, Bolaji M. Fapohunda
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This paper examines women’s covert use of contraceptives, that is, use without the knowledge of their husbands. Covert use may highlight conflict between husbands and wives about family planning, or it may reflect behaviors that spouses find difficult to discuss together. This study addresses three questions: 1) How is covert use measured in different settings? 2) How prevalent is it? and 3) What are the factors underlying covert use? We examine these questions by drawing on existing studies and detailed survey and qualitative data collected in 1997 in an urban setting in Zambia from married women and a subsample of …