Power, people and processes: A gender analysis of adolescent health policy in South Africa

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Global Strategy (2016-2030) emphasise that all women, children and adolescents ‘survive, thrive and transform’. A key element of this global policy framework is that gender equality is both a standalone goal, as well as a cross-cutting priority. Gender power relations are both social and structural determinants of health and shape health policy content, processes and systems. There are critical gaps in knowledge in terms of how gender inequality, and its intersectionality with other axes of power, shape adolescents’ health, as well as health policy and systems in South Africa.