Recent research on sexuality in East Africa

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

^1. We owe this terminology to Sylvia Tamale, personal communication, June 19 2006.

^2. According to the WHO draft working definition, sexuality is ‘a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, legal, historical and religious and spiritual factors’ (Source: WHO. www.who.int/reproductive-health/gender/sexualhealth.html).

^3. More recently, and for reasons that were unclear at the time of writing, the WHO draft working definition of sexuality has become unavailable on the WHO website.

^4. It is actually highly likely that some development partners worked in collaboration with WHO right from the onset to draw attention to sexuality, but what we describe here is how the process evolved from the perspective of many public health scholars and practitioners.

^5. Despite these commonalities, it is interesting to note that the Ford Foundation and SIDA seem to have operated very independently from one another in the East African region, rather than working together to create synergies in their important work within this setting.