Harmonization of The Legal Environment on Adolescent Sexual And Reproductive Health in East and Southern Africa

In 2015, UNFPA ESARO commissioned a study on the Harmonization of the Legal Environment on Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (ASRHR). The study assessed the laws and policies that affect ASRHR in 23 East and Southern African (ESA) countries, and was updated in 2019.
An outcome of the study was the development of a regional legal framework that provides legal guidance to countries towards the harmonization of laws and policies relating to ASRHR and their alignment with international, continental and regional instruments. This document summarizes the study’s findings and the key recommendations for legal reform presented in the regional framework, which taken together, constitute useful tools to continue advancing the SRHR of adolescents and young people across the region and to build on the many positive developments that have taken place between 2015 and 2019 in ESA.