Challenges, barriers and facilitators contributing to progress towards achieving SDG 3.7: a documentary review of selected Sub-Saharan African countries

There are disparities in the progress towards SDG 3.7 in sub-Saharan Africa. This documentary review analyzed the challenges, barriers and facilitators that contribute to progress towards achieving SDG 3.7 for adolescent girls in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Six countries were selected for the study based on their averaged performance in six different global development indexes, with the highest and the lowest performing country from three of the four sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa selected for analysis. One sub region was excluded due to lack of data in English. This review covered both peer-reviewed and grey literature published in the period 2015 to 2024. It analyzed the data to determine the strengths and weaknesses in adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) laws, policies, strategies and services in the six study countries.Facilitators of ASRH services among high-performing countries included conducive policy environments for ASRH and effective multi-sectoral coordination at national level, as well as commitment to family planning in national budgets and offering options for contraceptive choice to adolescent girls. Challenges include weak coordination among stakeholders at subnational level and inconsistencies between national laws and policies, such as conflict between the legal age of consent for contraceptives and age of eligibility to access ASRH services.Low-performing countries also benefit from conducive policy environment for ASRH, but struggle with weak stakeholder coordination and heavy reliance on external donor funding. The family planning services are provided for free in the three countries, but weak health systems and poor data collection limit these countries’ ability to monitor progress towards ASRH targets, including those for SDG 3.7.Recommendations include urging governments and regional bodies to foster collaboration among countries to share best practices, international development organizations to prioritize data disaggregation for adolescent girls in the reports and studies, and academic institutions to invest in ASRH research to address data gaps that inhibit comparative analysis of national progress towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.