Exploring the Prevalence and Community-level Determinants of Sexual Violence among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in sub-Saharan Africa: A Pooled Data Analysis of National Surveys.

Nebechukwu Henry Ugwu, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Meg Ryan, Trinity College Dublin
Noel McCarthy, Trinity College Dublin

Background: Sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries including adolescent health is currently challenged especially at the community levels, where most of the policies on SRH have not been adequately felt. This study aims to examine the prevalence and community-level determinants of sexual violence among Adolescent Girls and Young Women (aged 15-34) in selected SSA countries. Methods: The most three Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) waves from each of the 8 countries, two per African region were used for the study. Multi-level mixed-effect modeling was used to estimate trends in sexual violence over time and whether there is evidence of between-country variation in trend. Results: The preliminary results showed that the prevalence of sexual violence against AGYW is high in Zambia [10.8%], while Rwanda had the lowest prevalence of sexual violence at 2.1%. At the community-level measures, the odds of sexual violence against AGYW increased with those residing in average and high poverty rates communities. Conclusion: The study found that sexual violence against AGYW is quite high, indicating that it is significantly associated with multilevel factors. It becomes necessary to ensure that policies, and innovations on sexual violence in SSA are implemented.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Multi-level modeling

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