1. How do national contraception laws and policies address the contraceptive needs of adolescents in Paraguay?
- Author
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Kathya Cordova-Pozo, Sarah Borg, Andrea J. Hoopes, Adriane Salinas-Bomfim, Fanny Corrales-Ríos, Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, and Alma Virginia Camacho-Hubner
- Subjects
Adolescent ,Human Rights ,Service delivery framework ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Adolescent Health ,Sex Education ,Adolescents ,lcsh:Gynecology and obstetrics ,03 medical and health sciences ,Contraceptive policies and regulations ,0302 clinical medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,lcsh:RG1-991 ,media_common ,Service (business) ,030505 public health ,Human rights ,business.industry ,Research ,Obstetrics and Gynecology ,Monitoring and evaluation ,Public relations ,Contraception ,Reproductive Medicine ,Paraguay ,Law ,Needs assessment ,Accountability ,Normative ,Reproductive Health Services ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Psychology ,Needs Assessment ,Adolescent health - Abstract
Background The main objective is to examine how the Paraguayan laws, policies and regulations (hereafter referred to as normative guidance) specifically address adolescents and their contraceptive information and service needs using a human rights analytic framework. It must be noted that this paper examines the adolescent content of national laws, policies and regulations on contraception, not how they were applied. Methods The recommendations on “Ensuring human rights in the provision of contraceptive information and services” from the World Health Organization (WHO) were used as an analytic framework to assess current Paraguayan laws, policies and regulations. Three questions were explored: 1) whether the Paraguayan normative guidance relating to each WHO recommendation was present and specifically addressed adolescents 2) whether the normative guidance for each WHO recommendation was present but did not specifically address adolescents, or 3) whether Paraguayan normative guidance relating to each WHO recommendation was absent. This assessment led to the development of an analytic table which was used by the co-authors to generate conclusions and recommendations. Results The analysis found specific normative guidance for adolescents relating to six out of nine WHO summary recommendations and nine out of the 24 sub-recommendations. The guidance included strategies to overcome contraceptive service barriers and to improve access for displaced populations. Further, it supported gender-sensitive counselling, quality assurance processes, competency-based training, and monitoring and evaluation of programmes. Conclusions Paraguay’s contraception laws and policies are grounded in human rights principles. However, there are a number of aspects that need to be addressed in order to improve the quality of contraceptive provision and access for adolescents. Our recommendations include improving accessibility of contraceptive information and services, ensuring acceptability, quality, and accountability of contraceptive information and services, and promoting community and adolescent participation in contraceptive programmes and service delivery.
- Published
- 2017