To Save a Girl-Child, You Must Train a Boy-Child: A Note on Situational Irony
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MDPI
Abstract
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Despite numerous initiatives and resources to save and protect the health and sexual rights
of girls and women, the persistently high rate of unwanted pregnancy, abortion, and sexual violence
in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has remain a topical public health challenge. This study hypothesised
that the continuous conspicuous omission of boys/men in the interventions to combat this menace
could be a long-life impediment to the realisation of sustainable health for girls and women in
the region. The study adopted a systematic review of extant population-based published studies
from Scopus, Google Scholars, PubMed, EMBASE, and AJOL. Literature coverage included the
post-United Nations’ coordinated International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD),
Cairo, 1994, which marked the beginning of a massive campaign for women/girls sexual rights. The
obtained qualitative data were appraised and synthesised towards spurring policy recommendations
for gender balanced initiatives on the sexual and reproductive health rights in SSA. The study
highlighted that unwanted pregnancy occurs only when a boy/man has unprotected sex with a
girl/woman without considering her choice or rights. It is considered ironic that the dominant factors
are boys and men but many enlightenment initiatives/campaigns are concentrated on girls and
women. The study developed a schematic save-a-girl-child framework that illustrated the possible
dividends inherent in the training of a boy-child to achieve a safer world for the girls/women. It
recommends increase in the exposure of boys and men to sexual education and counselling, which
can motivate them to be supporters of family planning, supporters of only wanted pregnancy, wanted
fatherhood, marital fidelity, intimate partners’ harmonious living rather than violence, and wife or
partner empowerment.
Keywords
HM Sociology