Research on African adolescents' sexual and reproductive health: Ethical practices and challenges.

Sexual and reproductive health issues remain a huge public health challenge, especially in developing countries. These problems arise acutely in socio-cultural contexts marked by social prohibitions relating to adolescent sexuality. However, it is important to listen to adolescents to better understand how they experience their sexuality, the issues associated with it and their needs and expectations. For this, researchers must, among other things, appropriate the frame of reference of adolescents in terms of sexuality to promote relevant policies and interventions. But how can researchers conduct ethical research with people who are under parental care and socially condemned in relation to the research object? This article aims to contribute to the reflection on ethical research practices in sexual and reproductive health with African adolescents. In this paper, I have considered some ethical challenges and the prospects for solving them.

Negotiation of the use of medical contraception: Levers and obstacles within married couples in Benin.

In developing countries, millions of married women who want to use medical contraception are unable to do so for various reasons. To address this gap in access to contraception international development actors are emphasizing, among other things, the implementation of empowerment programs for women to enable them to take ownership of issues related to their sexual and reproductive health. Nevertheless, studies show that beyond their socio-demographic characteristics, negotiating contraception as a couple is the essential determinant of medical contraception usage among married women in developing countries. Thus, some authors suggest that this aspect be considered in the strategies of national family planning programs. However, we do not know much about the reasons underlying the negotiation or silence around contraception in Beninese married couples. To fill this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with women and men living as married couples in Benin. The results show that this type of negotiation is mainly influenced by specific factors that can act as levers or obstacles. These data could help family planning service providers in Benin and possibly other developing countries to ensure greater contraceptive use among married women.

Estimating unmet need for family planning: A new look at the Bradley, Croft, Fishel and Westoff (2012) Algorithm.

Every year, hundreds of millions of women face the painful experience of unwanted pregnancies. To address this situation, access to and use of reproductive health services, including for family planning purposes, has been considered a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). However, many women cannot access family planning services due to a common methodological error in surveys used to estimate unmet needs. In this article, I have discussed this historical error that has been widely accepted by the scientific community as well as perspectives that could reduce the incidence of unwanted pregnancies around the world.