Study on access to reproductive health care and high-risk practices among adolescents in Chad

In connection with the PASFASS project (Social Empowerment of Women through Access to Health Services), Groupe URD is conducting a study on the constraints affecting access to reproductive health services and on high-risk practices among female and male adolescents in Chad.

This study follows on from the conclusions of the socio-anthropological assessment that was carried out at the beginning of the project. It highlighted the significant vulnerability of female adolescents in terms of reproductive health care and the need to focus on this section of the population.

The study therefore aims to analyse the social issues at stake in terms of access to reproductive health care among young people and to identify high-risk practices and acts of gender-based violence (GBV) among this section of the population. A socio-anthropological approach will be adopted.

The study will involve:

• Analysing regional and national health policies targeting female and male adolescents, and reviewing programmes in this sector in Chad.
• Identifying the social issues that influence access to reproductive health services, and particularly to forms of contraception, and understanding what room for manoeuvre young people have to overcome these issues, and the strategies that they adopt.
• Understanding the social determinants of high-risk practices among adolescents, and the consequences of these practices on the health of young women (the consumption of alcohol and psychotropic drugs, unprotected sex, clandestine abortions, forced marriages, early pregnancies, etc.).
• Updating our conception of gender-based violence (GBV) against female and male adolescents in domestic, public and community environments, and understanding the dominant popular perceptions of this phenomenon.
• Evaluating the relevance of the PASFASS project’s interventions and making recommendations to guide the implementation of prevention, treatment and advocacy activities aimed at male and female adolescents.

This project is being coordinated by Florence Chatot and Thomas Foin from Groupe URD, in collaboration with a national expert in reproductive health.