These reforms have also been affected by changes in national and international allocation of resources to the health sector, the attribution of responsibility for health, and the increasing commodification of health in almost all countries [2]. Policy changes, some progressive, others retrogressive, wide-ranging biomedical and social research, and efforts to improve sexual and reproductive heal...

BACKGROUND In Ghana, adolescents constitute about a quarter of the total population. These adolescents make reproductive health decisions and choices based on their knowledge and the availability of such choices. These reproductive health decisions and choices can either negatively or positively affect their lives. This study therefore explored adolescents' reproductive health knowledge and cho...

In a seminal 1993 article, RuthDixon-Mueller questioned the reproductive health field’s conceptualization of sexuality, arguing that it had treated intercourse as a sanitized, emotionally neutral act. If one were to learn about human sexuality by reading family planning research andprogrammanuals, she suggested, onewould have no idea that sex leads to great enjoyment—as well as pain—for human b...

This synthesis report is a result of the support that we received from many people. At The Alan Guttmacher Institute, we are very grateful to Akinri-nola Bankole, Ann Biddlecom and Susheela Singh, who thoroughly read the report and provided very useful and constructive comments. We would also like to thank Dixie Maluwa-Banda of the University of Malawi and Nyovani Madise of the University of So...

OBJECTIVE To ascertain the perspectives of family-planning service providers in eight sites in China on the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried young people. METHODS Data were drawn from a survey of 1927 family-planning workers and 16 focus group discussions conducted in eight sites in China in 1998-99. FINDINGS Family-planning workers recognized the need to pr...