Contraception within the context of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive lives
Country profiles
Overview
The rationale for the development of the country profiles is that while data on individual indicators such as child marriage prevalence or modern contraceptive use provide useful information, they do not give an overall picture of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health (ASRH).
50 country profiles
Download all country profiles, 151 pages, pdf 6.4 Mb.
Factsheets by country available at the bottom of this page.
ASRH country profiles: Technical note on the indicators included
The country profiles are intended to place data on a selected set of indicators that are available in the public arena to provide a holistic picture of ASRH, within the broader context of their lives. They are primarily intended for national level decision makers working on adolescent health, to inform their policies and strategies.
They were developed using this five-step process, which involved consultation with colleagues within WHO and collaborators within and outside the United Nations system at every stage.
First, ten domains of indicators were agreed upon:
- Socio- demographic characteristics
- Sexual Activity
- Child Marriage/ In Union Status
- Childbearing
- Fertility Intentions and Contraceptive Use
- Abortion
- Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Human Papillomavirus
- Gender-based Violence
- Female Genital Cutting
- Menstruation
Second, in order to identify the indicators to place within each of these domains, indicators in the public domain were identified and reviewed. These indicators were extracted from:
WHO’s Global Reference List of 100 Core Indicators (plus health-related SDGs), 2018
WHO’s Global Reference List of Health Indicators for Adolescents (aged 10-19 years), 2014
EMRO Core health Indicators, undated
Core Indicators for National AIDS Programmes, 2008
UNECE Monitoring Framework for the ICPD Programme of Action beyond 2014, undated
The indicators were then shortlisted in consultation with colleagues within WHO and external collaborators (FP2020, University of North Carolina, University of Southampton, USAID and DFID). The finalized indicators were chosen based on the following criteria: (i) indicators were aligned with the global initiatives (ii) indicators explicitly captured data on ASRH (iii) data on indicators were available at the aggregate national level.
Third, a landscaping exercise was then conducted to take stock of the ASRH data available in a variety of sources, including the USAID Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), UNAIDS AIDS info, UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), UNICEF State of the World’s Children and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UNDESA PD) Population Prospects estimates. Data were then gathered from the respective sources on the selected indicators in the ten domains listed above.
Fourth, the country profiles were then generated following the collation of the data. The draft country profiles were shared for review and then reality tested in FP2020 country focal point meetings and in other fora.
Fifth, the data were checked and rechecked before the finalization of the country profiles. This process involved an independent verification of the country profiles in which a line-by-line check was done for a sample of indicators in each country profile. Any discrepancies identified during the verification exercise were discussed and resolved. The estimates were then updated to reflect the most-up-to-date data source.
