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“Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa is essential reading for anyone wishing to integrate an intersectional, rights-based approach to digital innovation and technologies to move towards substantive equality.”
-from the foreword by TLALENG MOFOKENG, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
In Sub-Saharan Africa, digital innovation and emerging technologies are reshaping the landscape of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). As digital solutions gain ground, they offer hope for improved access to services, enhanced health outcomes, and community empowerment. However, these advancements also present privacy, regulation, and equity concerns, particularly where healthcare access is uneven and digital literacy varies widely. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Digital Innovation and Emerging Technologies explores the intersection of digital innovation and SRHR within the African context. Edited by renowned experts, this work explores how digital tools can improve the accessibility, quality, and reach of SRHR services, while also addressing legal, ethical, and human rights considerations. Authors highlight both the promise and pitfalls of digital health solutions, offering insights into how policies can be shaped to protect rights and promote the responsible use of technology.
Chapter 1. Digital Innovation, Technologies and the Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health; Satang Nabaneh and Ebenezer Durojaye
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Digital Innovation and Emerging Technologies is a timely and powerful contribution to the growing conversation on how technology is reshaping health and human rights across the continent. What makes this volume stand out is how thoughtfully it brings together voices from law, public health, and gender justice to show that digital innovation is not merely a technical advance—it is profoundly political and personal. By anchoring the discussion in the lived realities of African communities, the editors remind us that digital tools must be shaped by, and serve, the people they are meant to reach. This book compels us to interrogate through a justice lens with issues like data privacy, digital equity, and meaningful access—not as side concerns, but as central to advancing SRHR across Africa. It is both a bold call to action and a practical guide—essential reading for anyone committed to health justice and human dignity in our rapidly evolving digital age.
This book is essential for those of us working toward the realization of sexual and reproductive health rights today. As we grapple with the promise and perils of technological innovation, this collection brings new understanding to a quickly shifting landscape. With the fast pace of well-resourced developments in technology, human rights authorities, scholars, and advocates can feel confounded by the vast implications of tech. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Digital Innovation and Emerging Technologies answers crucial legal questions and identifies important gaps, providing a foundation for further inquiry and action to ensure human rights in the face of technological development. The editors bring together for the first time an array of perspectives from a range of disciplines to consider key questions and developments in sexual and reproductive health rights and tech. Although the authors focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, the contributors’ insights and analysis have great relevance to scholarship and practice in other regions and for international human rights law broadly. The power of technology to improve sexual and reproductive health for all is tremendous, but the human rights challenges innovation now poses are even more substantial. We must take a robust, informed, and multisectoral approach to securing rights while harnessing technological advancements in health. This book lays a path forward.
Satang Nabaneh is Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, USA. She is also Global Fellow at CMI-UiB Centre on Law & Social Transformation, Bergen, Norway. Recognized for her impactful contributions, she was named one of 10 exceptionally talented African scholars to watch in 2024 by The Africa Report.
Ebenezer Durojaye is a Professor of Law at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has been involved in research, teaching and the drafting of important norms and standards in relation to socio-economic rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa.