This is particularly important for women and girls in Sub-Saharan African. According to Odimegwu and Mkwananzi (2016), Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the world in 2013. The consequences of teenage pregnancy are numerous including lower educational attainment and school dropout resulting in lower income-earning potential and perpetuation of poverty and also the children that teenagers bear experience higher levels of birth complications, poor health outcomes and deprivation (Odimegwu & Mkwananzi, 2016). This is why curbing teenage pregnancy has become an urgent health and social matter, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

For my proposed study, I’d like to focus on school-based sexual and reproductive health education initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and the effects they have on women and girls, particularly in terms of adolescent pregnancy, and if these effects lead to improved social and economic development. 

Are school-based sexual and reproductive health initiatives effective at reducing adolescent pregnancy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa? 

Are students that are involved or have been involved in these types of initiatives more likely to use contraceptives? If not, what are the reasons that adolescents engage in unprotected sex?  

Do these initiatives lead to an improvement of knowledge and lasting behavioral change in the students when it comes to sexual and reproductive health? 

Does delaying pregnancy until after their adolescent years affect Sub-Saharan African women’s economic development?