Complexity versus the technical fix or how to put sexuality back into sexual health

Abstract

These reflections consider the failure of the public health establishment to invest in evaluations of interventions that support community groups to shift individual and community behaviours in favour of sexual well-being, sexual rights and sexual satisfaction. This article queries the willingness to invest substantially in researching technical interventions without simultaneously assessing their potential unintended consequences for sexual health well-being; the associated lack of will to invest in social research is also queried. The paper proposes that part of the challenge is the research paradigm that fears complexity, despite growing recognition that sexuality and sexual health are products of a complex intersection of factors, and they require research and evaluation methodologies that recognise such complexity. The paper argues that given the wide-ranging efforts to promote shifts in community norms and practices in relation to sexuality, an opportunity is being lost due to the failure to use ongoing process and outcome evaluations to inform interventions that would provide implementers and groups in communities with resources and ideas to strengthen the quality of their efforts in different contexts, thereby failing to meet the promise of the International Conference on Population and Development.

Keywords:

• complexity
• sexual rights
• evidence
• research
• policy

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the peer reviewer for invaluable advice.