Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the Caribbean: Linking the Two Regions

In a time of global backlash against women’s rights and gender issues, this book echoes the importance of protecting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women by conceptualising and analysing relevant sexual and reproductive health rights issues (SRHR) in Africa and the Caribbean. It examines the linkages that exist around SRHR issues between the two regions and how this understanding can help to support the protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights both in Africa and the Caribbean. It focuses on providing historical, conceptual and contxtual understandings of SRHR issues in the African continent and the Caribbean region. The main topics engage theoretical and contemporary issues, e.g., limitations to the single use of courts as avenues for reducing obstetric violence, abortion rights, maternal mortality, gender-based violence, and adolescent sexuality. The book presents diverse perspectives in the examination of SRHR issues by offering legal, socio-political, and medical frameworks for analysing and understanding sexual and reproductive health and rights. It further contributes to the discourse and strategies to protect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and men to improve both women’s and men’s quality of life/well-being and to also achieve gender equality.

Zainab Monisola Olaitan, PhD, is a political scientist with expertise in gender and representation, African politics, feminist thought, and peace and conflict studies. She is a Post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) at Queen’s University. She is also a research associate at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) and the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender, and Class (CSRGC), both at the University of Johannesburg. She has published widely in journals, book projects, and policy briefs on themes bordering on feminist thought, African politics, gender and representation, African indigenous knowledge systems, and peace and conflict studies.

Tinuade Adekunbi Ojo, PhD, is the director of the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender, and Class and an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. Her interdisciplinary work bridges multiple fields to address complex issues related to women and gender in Africa. As a feminist political economist, Prof. Ojo integrates political science, economics, sociology, and environmental studies perspectives in her research. Her extensive publications on gender and development policy and the political economy of trade and aid in Africa and the Diaspora underscore her commitment to advancing knowledge and policy in these critical areas.

Shakira Maxwell, PhD, is a reproductive health and women’s rights activist. She is currently the senior programme officer in the Office of Global Affairs at The UWI. Dr Maxwell is also the current president of the Board of Directors of the Jamaica Family Planning Association, one of the longest-serving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the island, which provides safe sexual and reproductive health services to some of the most vulnerable in society. She has published in the areas of gender and development studies, female criminality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.