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Abstract Introduction Adolescents and young women in low-middle-income countries face obstacles to accessing HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), and related Gender-Based Violence (GBV) services. This paper presents facilitators, opportunities, and barriers to enhance uptake of HIV, GBV, and SRH services among Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in selected districts in Zambia. Methods This study was conducted in Chongwe, Mazabuka, and Mongu Districts among adolescent girls and young women in Zambia. Key informants (n = 29) and in and out-of-school adolescents and young people (n = 25) were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used to select and recruit the study participants. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and a content analysis approach was used for analysis. Results The facilitators that were used to enhance the uptake of services included having access to health education information on comprehensive adolescent HIV and gender-based violence services. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were the main source of this information. The opportunities bordered on the availability of integrated approaches to service delivery and strengthened community and health center linkages with referrals for specialised services. However, the researchers noted some barriers at individual, community, and health system levels. Refusal or delay to seek the services, fear of side effects associated with contraceptives, and long distance to the health facility affected the uptake of services. Social stigma and cultural beliefs also influenced the understanding and use of the available services in the community. Health systems barriers were; inadequate infrastructure, low staffing levels, limited capacity of staff to provide all the services, age and gender of providers, and lack of commodities and specialised services. Conclusion The researchers acknowledge facilitators and opportunities that enhance the uptake of HIV, GBV, and SRH services. However, failure to address barriers at the individual and health systems level always negatively impacts the uptake of known and effective interventions. They propose that programme managers exploit the identified opportunities to enhance uptake of these services for the young population.

Abstract:Background: Several studies have been conducted on effects of COVID-19 on health, social and economic situation. However, evidence on the African continet on the responsiveness to sexual gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been adequately documented. This paper systematically reviews evidence from the African context regarding how countries responded to sexual gender-based violence during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.Results: Drivers shaping the occurrence of SGBV included social and political responsiveness. The forms of SGBV experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic included; sexual; social- economic; physical emotional and domestic violence. Factors affecting responsiveness towards SGBV includes; limited availability or accessibility to the justice system, challenges accessing health services, inadequate human resources, fear of contracting COVID-19, social and economic barriers, and breakdown of social networks. Strategies for enhancing responsiveness included; training support, status on referral and linkages systems, protection services such as shelters and safety services, helplines and hotlines/communication, and collaboration on SGBV response.Conclusion: There is need to strengthen broader systems responsiveness through collaboration by creating strategies that promote reduction of SGBV. These strategies should include; community engagement to shift social -cultural norms towards gender and sexuality, creating social development opportunities for empowering and enabling women and girls with self-help and reliant activities, leveraging on community health systems structures to detect, link and monitoring of SGBV cases as well as co-integration of traditional justice system into the mainstream.