Table 12: Young people’s source of information of SRH during the lockdown

from Impact of COVID-19 on household incomes and access to SRHR services by young people

Annex 8: Case Study Documentation Guide

being informed and feeling confident to talk about SRH, and concerns of trust on both ends to facilitate open interaction about sexual and reproductive health.

My children talk to me on issues of SRHR, but other children do not because first, the parents are not friendly to their children and children see their parents as a burden to them. A child will tell you “I am fed up with my parents” and you even wonder. So, how do you expect people living like enemies to talk on issues of SRHR care (FGD Caregiver of PWD – Buyere; Mpungwe Sub-county)

These findings are somewhat consistent with previous studies that show issues of sex and sexuality in most African communities are regarded as sacred and therefore rarely openly discussed especially with young people. As a result, many young people are left to discover on their own, which often comes along with negative ramifications such as teenage pregnancies and associated problems such as abortion, school dropouts, early marriages, and reduced prospects of living a good life.

3.3 Role of district and community leaders in promoting SRHR during the pandemic

Uganda operates a decentralized system of service delivery including in the health sector. Under this system of administration and governance, local governments through their respective structures are at the forefront of service including in the health sector. They contextualize, adapt, and implement policies, strategies and interventions developed at the national level; and scale up health interventions at the district level (Bulthuis et al., 2021). Given their proximity to the people, the district and other community leaders can also play a fundamental role in health promotion by mobilizing people to access and utilize available services including SRH.

With the onset of the COVID-19, local governments at the district and sub-county levels were at the forefront of the fight by enforcing and monitoring the implementation of the Ministry of Health standard operating procedures for the prevention of the spread of the virus. This study sought to assess the role of district and community leaders in facilitating access to sexual and reproductive health services for young people during the COVID-19 pandemic period, particularly during the lockdown which spanned from March to June 2020.

Interviews with young people showed that district and other community leaders were not a dominant source of information on SRH during the lockdown as shown in table 12 below, where only 7.75%of young people obtained SRH information from local leaders/politicians, 5.63% from Village Health Teams and 2.11% from religious leaders.