Report by HAI and Rwanda NGO Forum | Download

The Government of Rwanda has made efforts to improve the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of adolescents and youths through the adoption of various policies and strategies. Nevertheless, adolescents still face many SRH-related challenges, and there is still a long way to go to ensure access to affordable and equitable services for adolescents. Adolescents (15-19 years old) in Rwanda have long been excluded from conversations about their own health. They are also given limited decision making power on the type of services and ways in which they are offered through the health system. This has disastrous consequences on the uptake of services and on the health of our young populations, which ultimately affects all domains of life in our society, including school, work, family and community.

This activity was undertaken by Rwanda NGOs Forum on AIDS & Health Promotion (RNGOF) and Health Action International (HAI) as part of the Solutions for Supporting Healthy Adolescents and Rights Protection (SHARP) programme, funded by the European Union. Twelve discussion leads (six men and six women) that were youths of between 18-19 years of age, received training on how to moderate and conduct focus group discussions. During the training the leads developed a list of questions to be asked in the focus group discussions. In total, 12 focus group discussions of a maximum of one hour were held in Gatsibo, Nyagatare and Nyarugenge districts in Rwanda. Due to the sensitivity of speaking up about SRH topics, gender-specific focus groups were held. The participants were a diverse group of six adolescent girls or boys of 18-19 years of age. The discussion leads worked in pairs: A focus group discussion with only boys was moderated by two male discussion leads, and a focus group discussion with only girls by two female discussion leads. The focus group discussions were audio recorded and anonymised. Consent was sought from the participants before the activity. This report covers the focus group discussions of all three districts.

Download the report to find out more about the perspectives of adolescents on SRH in Rwanda