Consequences of the COVID Epidemic for Youth Reproductive Health in Northern Uganda (CONSCOV)
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the sexual and reproductive health of youth and adolescents in northern Uganda. CONSCOV aims to establish the extent of the pandemic’s impact.
The CONSCOV project targets youth and adolescents in northern Uganda, especially in Gulu City and Adjumani District. The project particularly focuses on secondary school students, refugees and socially excluded youth who are known in Gulu as the aguu. The aguu are young people whose main means of survival is criminality.
The project analyses information on teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), post-abortion care, and access to family planning services. It also trains health workers in research methods that help them understand the underlying issues of the medical cases they handle as well as generate and share research knowledge. As the CONSCOV team conducts research, it extends free medical services to the youth and adolescents.
Read more about the project and the Ugandan team here: CONSCOV (gu.ac.ug)
What we do:
- We analyze information on teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), post-abortion care, and access to family planning services, through existing statistics and qualitative methods.
- We offer training to health workers in generating and sharing research knowledge.
- We engage the youth and adolescents in reproductive health education
- We extend free medical services to youth and adolescents in northern Uganda.
The CONSCOV research partnership includes Gulu University, the University of Copenhagen, Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH), and Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU). CONSCOV is funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Danida.
Student collaborations
Four Master's students from the University of Copenhagen have also contributed to the project. Three students from the MSc in Anthropology have done fieldwork for the project as part of their Master's thesis, and a student from the MSc in Global Health has done an internship in the project.
Academic publications from the CONSCOV team are forthcoming.
Besides academic publications, the outcome of the project is also being communicated in blog posts and news articles in the Ugandan media.
The following pieces were written for the blog of Gulu University's program Building Stronger Universities (BSU), which CONSCOV is a part of.
January 25th, 2024 Over 50 teachers from 15 primary and secondary schools in Adjumani and Obongi districts have undergone training facilitated by CONSCOV in handling sexual and reproductive health issues among adolescents and the youth. Read more here: CONSCOV Trains West Nile Teachers in Reproductive Health
July 13th, 2023 CONSCOV research assistant, Patrick Kabwijamu, writes about his experience of visiting the refugee settlements in the Adjumani District part of the project: Our Visit to Adjumani Refugee Settlements was Very Revealing
April 4th, 2023 CONSCOV research assistants Patrick Kabwijamu and Patrick Ochen were interviewed about their research among the aguu, a group of socially excluded youth in Gulu City: The Patricks: Two Research Assistants Engaging Gulu City’s Most Notorious Youth
March 7th, 2023 Health workers Emily Kayeny and Filda Anicia were interviewed about their participation in CONSCOV. read the blog post here: “CONSCOV Has Opened My Understanding. I am Now Thinking outside the Box.”
Researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanne Overgaard Mogensen | Associate Professor | +4535323454 | |
| Susan Reynolds Whyte | Professor | +4535323477 |
Funded by:
Consequences of the COVID Epidemic for Youth Reproductive Health in Northern Uganda (CONSCOV) has received funding from Danida Fellowship Centre.
Project: Consequences of the COVID Epidemic for Youth Reproductive Health in Northern Uganda (CONSCOV)
Period: 2022 – 2024
Contact
Professor Susan Whyte
Department of Anthropology
Susan.Reynolds.Whyte@anthro.ku.dk
+45 35 32 34 77
Associate Professor Hanne Mogensen
Department of Anthropology
Hanne.Mogensen@anthro.ku.dk
+45 35 32 34 54