A qualitative approach to interrogating the age and gender divide in digital SRHR platforms in Kenya

Abstract

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR) programmes for 10–17-year-old adolescents in many African contexts are school-based and often aim to manage the risks associated with adolescent sexuality. Such programmes are critiqued for adopting pathologising, biomedical, moralistic and/or authoritarian approaches. Critiques of conventional ASRHR initiatives and technological advancements have resulted in an increased use of digital technologies to facilitate ASRHR. However, there is a gender and age divide whereby adolescent minors, particularly girls, remain excluded, unreached, or unable to exercise their agency. Despite the existence of a gender and age divide in digital SRH platforms, the divide remains uninterrogated. Data were collected in four phases from November 2019 to April 2022 using a qualitative mixed methods design that included review of online information and communication technology (ICT)-based sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) websites and platforms, 18 interviews with implementers of the platforms, and seven focus group discussions with adolescent girls. Even though ICTs have demonstrated their ability to navigate socio-cultural tensions surrounding SRHR, an age and gender divide poses a barrier for them to achieve this anticipated potential as adolescent girls below the age of 18 have the least access in Kenya. Socio-cultural norms surrounding adolescent sexuality in Kenya continue to inform ASRHR policies and programmes that exclude 10–17-year-old girls, particularly those in low-income urban contexts. Such exclusionary norms permeate digital spaces, inhibiting the potential of digital spaces to offer comprehensive and holistic services to adolescent girls who are not legally adult.