How are gender equality and human rights interventions included in sexual and reproductive health programmes and policies: a systematic review of existing research foci and gaps
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
The importance of promoting gender equality and human rights in sexual and reproductive
health (SRH) programmes and policies has been affirmed in numerous international
and regional agreements, most recently the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Given the critical role of research to determine what works, we aimed to identify research
gaps as part of a broader priority setting exercise on integrating gender equality and
human rights approaches in SRH programmes and policies. A systematic literature
review of reviews was conducted to examine the question: what do we know about how
research in the context of SRH programmes and policies has addressed gender equality
and human rights and what are the current gaps in research. We searched three databases
for reviews that addressed the research question, were published between 1994±
2014, and met methodological standards for systematic reviews, qualitative meta-syntheses
and other reviews of relevance to the research question. Additional grey literature
was identified based on expert input. Articles were appraised by the primary author and
examined by an expert panel. An abstraction and thematic analysis process was used to
synthesize findings. Of the 3,073 abstracts identified, 56 articles were reviewed in full and
23 were included along with 10 from the grey literature. The majority focused on interventions
addressing gender inequalities; very few reviews explicitly included human rights
based interventions. Across both topics, weak study designs and use of intermediate outcome
measures limited evidence quality. Further, there was limited evidence on interventions
that addressed marginalized groups. Better quality studies, longer-term indicators,
and measurement of unintended consequences are needed to better understand the
impact of these types of interventions on SRH outcomes. Further efforts are needed to cover research on gender equality and human rights issues as they pertain to a broader
set of SRH topics and populations.
Description
Keywords
Gender equality, Human rights, Sexual and reproductive health (SRH), Programmes and policies
Citation
Hartmann, M. et al. (2016). How are gender equality and human rights interventions included in sexual and reproductive health programmes and policies: a systematic review of existing research foci and gaps. Plos One, 11(12): e0167542.