Mathoka Khaile

By Mathoka Khaile

Adolescents’ access to contraception is a serious global and regional concern as a public health component. Therefore, this chapter analyses adolescents’ access to contraception, using gender and social inclusion lens, where the access to contraception services and information is explored. Thus, legislative and administrative measures as well as practices focusing on access to contraception are analysed in this chapter, using desk review and content analysis from the gender and social inclusion perspective. The results reveal that Lesotho is a state party to treaties that obligate states to ensure access to contraception for adolescents from the gender and social inclusion perspective, and this has also been implicated in the Constitution of Lesotho. However, other laws do not provide for gender- and social-inclusive access to contraception for adolescents. Administratively, the National Family Planning Guidelines for Health Service Providers of 2017 and National Strategic Development Plan II are the only strategies that are gender-responsive and use social inclusion lens to facilitate access to contraception for adolescents. Other policies are gender-blind and silent about adolescents and access to contraception. Lastly, statistics show that many adolescents do not have access to contraception, and gender- and social-inclusion issues are not taken into consideration.

Part of the book: Conception and Family Planning