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(July 2015) Kenya’s young people, especially adolescents (ages 10 to 19), have certain needs and vulnerabilities that warrant attention. Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), is a crucial component of lifelong health and well-being and contributes to the health of future generations. Results from Kenya’s 2014 Demographic and Health Survey show that facets of ASRH are improving but some areas need further work.
Girls participating in a sexual reproductive health class supported by Dance4Life at Nile Road Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya. Dance4Life uses music, media and dance to educate, empower and unite young girls.
Credit: Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik/Reportage by Getty Images
Promoting ASRH in Kenya means providing adolescents with services to prevent, diagnose, and treat sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; giving information on and strategies for preventing unintended pregnancy; ending harmful practices that negatively impact ASRH; and empowering adolescents with age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education. Key investments in ASRH today can yield tremendous returns as adolescents grow up healthy and strong and have more opportunities available to them, and couples are better able to plan, provide, and care for their families.
To highlight the critical remaining sexual and reproductive health needs of Kenyan adolescents, PRB has partnered with the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) to produce a fact sheet. This fact sheet shares new data on:
- Rates of adolescent childbearing.
- Contraceptive use among married adolescent girls ages 15 to 19 and levels of unmet need.
- Adolescent mothers’ use of health care facilities and skilled birth attendants.
- Other components of adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
Based on the current status of ASRH in Kenya, PRB and CSA recommend strengthening policy commitments, targeting financial support, implementing effective programming, and creating spaces for dialogue between adolescents and key stakeholders.
This fact sheet was produced by Population Reference Bureau, in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Adolescence, based on Nairobi, Kenya. Special thanks to Nixon Ouku Otieno, Janet Mugo, and Albert Obbuyi of CSA; and Shelley Megquier, Heather Randall, Jason Bremner, and Heidi Worley of PRB, for their roles in producing this fact sheet.