Senior Lecturer at the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) at the University of Ghana, Dr. Adriana Andrea Ewurabena Biney revealed that emerging adults are typically ignored when it comes to issues pertaining their reproductive health.
She was speaking at a two-day policy communication and engagement meeting program from the 15th to the 16th of March, 2023, at the Tomreik Hotel in Accra. The event aimed to share findings from a study to explore the sexual and reproductive health concerns of emerging adults in Accra and to identify the links between sexual and reproductive health and urban development.
Sharing some of the findings, Dr. Biney revealed that focus is primarily given to adolescents rather than emerging adults due to assumptions implying their adequate knowledge on reproductive health as a subject. She also noted that male adults tend to get overlooked as well when it comes to their reproductive health. She stated that it is necessary for the views of males to be included in reproductive health situations.
“It is critical to study the contraceptive behavior among these young people and also include the views of males. In recent times, the focus has been more on adolescents than on emerging adults because we think that they are adults, so they don’t require as much attention as adolescents, and the males tend to be overlooked when it comes to reproductive health services and knowledge.”
Dr. Adriana Biney went on to bemoan the failure to consider family planning over the years in the formulation of Urban development policies as enshrined in one of Ghana’s developmental policies, the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda. She also revealed that there has been resistance to using modern contraceptive methods among youth in the urban setting, a situation she questioned with concern.
“Now we’re shifting to the urban aspect, and with this, there is said to be resistance in the urban setting when it comes to using modern contraceptive methods. So, how much more among young people? When we look at one of Ghana’s key development documents, the Ghana Shared Goals and Development Agenda, it states that family planning is an essential concern that must be integrated at all levels of development planning and activities. This is what the document says, but family planning has not really been considered when we think about development issues.”
