A Narrative Review of Ghanaian Policies and Interventions Supporting Young People’s Sexual Agency
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
A narrative review of Ghanaian policies & interventions supporting young people's sexual agency
This is a paper on a subject that remains topical; how can policies & interventions geared to promoting young people's SRH do justice to their lives, needs & desires? The authors address an important question, that is, do such policies and programmes recognise young people as sexual beings? If not or if so, what might the implications be for young people? The authors state that they seek to develop an understanding of this question in the context of Ghana, or rather, against the backdrop of Ghanaian sociocultural norms. Whilst I appreciate the authors' aims to promote a more expansive (d generous) acknowledgment of young people's sexuality" concur with their claim that doing so contributes in critical ways to the quality of SRH-related
education & services young women at men will receive. The paper needs a fair amount of revision, in my view.
Below I provide some overarching remarks, in the copy of the paper that I reviewed, I inserted comments which pertain to textual issues and well as substantive questions along the way. I hope the input is helpful!
a. It is not clear what the rationale of the paper is. what specifically is the issue, what is known about the issue and what is not (gaps)? Which gap will the paper address?
b. Why Ghana? I strongly suggest refraining from referring to Ghana as indigenous!) The paper aims to give us greater understanding of young people, sexuality & sexual mores in the context of Ghana. However, it builds on a very slim body of literature to tell us about these matters and the reader is left with a rather patchy sense of a county and its young people. Some distinction is made between young women I men but not by age, region, level of education, class etc. etc. What about caregivers -does the literature suggest that they broadly think the "same? or might there be differences? If so, how can policy 9 practice respond to / account for difference? My point is that as a reader you only get the barest sense of literature on) young & women a men. (note: a- is the article about adolescents, young people, young adults or are these terms used interchangeably?), caregivers, educators, sexual norms and values in a across a different parts of the county.
c. on p 1 (lines 43-44), I inserted a comment about rather generalising statements in the text. It would be important to review the manuscript for such statements.
d. The theoretical framework needs considerable development. Which sociology of childhood scholars are you building on, which debates is the paper embedded in? What is the framework of the sociology of childhood? These matters require discussion. At present it is unclear which literatures the paper builds on (including conceptualization of CSE).
e. Methodology-the section is now titled "methods" but I suggest further developing it and saying more as to how the study was conducted. I inserted some questions in the document - hopefully these help with the further development of the section.
f. the discussion of the various policies a ambiguities reads well & is interesting. The authors note the ambiguity but do not offer further analysis, which is a pity. Can more be said about the ambiguity-what might explain it?
g. The paper needs to better clarify what it adds to existing knowledge. At present, it reads too much as aconfirmation of what has been well established in literature people's sexuality, abstinence only education and the failures thereof.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
The flow of the text needs considerable work. I have indicated in the attachment places where I struggled to understand the arguments made. I'd recommend a really careful editing to ensure sentences and arguments are clear.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis manuscript provides a fairly detailed analysis of sexual and reproductive health policies in Ghana. It also applies a comprehensive sexuality education approach. The conclusions it draws and the recommendations are very interesting and necessary. However, it would be advisable to compare the present analysis with similar articles in other contexts. More public policy analysis should be carried out following this approach.
In the introduction, I would contextualise the models of CSE and the abstinence-based approach a little further
Quotations are missing in several parts of the text, for example in lines 256 and 270. I do not know if this is a mistake in the manuscript.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
