Empowerment, gender and young people's sexual health: Establishing an intervention research agenda

This funding application is to support the establishment of a population-level intervention research agenda on empowerment, gender and young people's sexual health. Globally, improving the sexual health of youth remains a challenge as rates of sexually transmitted infections continue to rise. Empowerment is often advocated as a positive approach to improve youth sexual health and reduce engagement in potentially risky practices. However, rarely do such individual-level interventions examine the complexities underpinning concepts of empowerment (for example, gendered power relations). The lack of acknowledgement of gendered power relations within existing interventions arguably downplays the structural and contextual factors that shape health inequities. Objectives include: 1.Identify knowledge gaps related to the theorization and operationalization of empowerment (e.g., gendered power relations) and to use the results of that analysis to inform a new research agenda that will advance knowledge of population-level interventions to support young people's sexual health. 2.Examine similarities and differences in existing empowerment frameworks and how these frameworks might exacerbate or attenuate the impacts of gendered power relations amongst young people living within various socio-cultural and political contexts. 3.To identify and establish research partnerships (including with young people themselves) to help launch a new international research agenda focused on gender, empowerment and sexual health. 4.To develop at least one research proposal for submission to Canadian and/or international funding bodies. Outputs include: a scoping paper; a 3-day International Workshop; a series of manuscripts and lay-language workshop report; a research agenda; and at least one grant proposal.