Cocreated regional research agenda for evidence-informed policy and advocacy to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa

The main research priorities focused on understanding the needs and service access of vulnerable adolescent populations; implementation research on the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education and adolescent-friendly SRH services; understanding the impact of child marriage on health and well-being; and the analysis of legal and policy provisions addressing the age of consent to SRH services for adolescents. Introduction The sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region has one of the poorest adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) indicators, and a multiplicity of structural and sociocultural factors contribute to these poor adolescent SRH outcomes.1–3 Prevailing sociocultural and religious beliefs characterise adolescent sexuality as a taboo.4 5 As a result, interventions or policies aiming to improve adolescent SRH outcomes face significant opposition.6 Additionally, vague and restrictive regulations on the right to privacy, confidentiality and informed consent to accessing SRH services limit the provision and access to SRH services to adolescents.7 Regional commitments on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), such as the ground-breaking Maputo Protocol, have explicitly recognised adolescents' right to youth-friendly SRH services, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), safe abortion and postabortion care.8–10 Although most countries in SSA have ratified the Maputo Protocol, domestication and operationalisation remain slow. The evidence priorities include: (1) the nature and scope of existing demand for sexuality education among children, parents and guardians across different contexts, (2) the extent to which sexuality education is provided within family contexts, and the nature and adequacy of the skills or information conveyed to children within this context, (3) the impact of SRH information and skills on adolescents and young people’s SRH and well-being including unintended pregnancy, menstrual hygiene, sexual risk behaviours and sexual and gender-based violence among different categories of adolescents, national or subnational case studies exploring the relationship between the (full) provision of CSE and sexual behaviours, SRH and broader well-being indicators among adolescents, and (4) sound interventions in the delivery of CSE in African contexts—documenting and evaluating CSE interventions targeting in and out-of-school adolescents. [...]they pointed out that research