Continuing the Conversation - Adolescent Reproductive Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Описание: UCLA SPH: Continuing the Conversation Webinar, February 15, 2012

Title: Adolescent Reproductive Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Speaker: Paula Tavrow, PhD, MSc, MALD
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Director, UCLA's Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health
UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health

Adolescence is generally a period of exploration, identity formation, and risk-taking. For many youths, it is also a time when they are particularly vulnerable to coerced sex, HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. In this webinar, Paula Tavrow will describe how social, cultural and economic forces in sub-Saharan Africa heighten youths' vulnerability to there reproductive health problems. Drawing on her research in western Kenya, she will focus on two areas: (1) the barriers to effective contraceptive use by rural African adolescents, and (2) the role of traditional male circumcision in rigidifying gender roles.

Dr. Tavrow's research centers on adolescent reproductive health, coerced sex and the quality of primary health care in East Africa. She was the Deputy Research Director for the USAID-funded global Quality Assurance Project (1997-2001) and oversaw eleven operations research projects to improve the quality of rural health services in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.