A Cross-Sectional Community Readiness Assessment for Implementing School-Based Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Evidence indicates that school-based sexuality education empowers children and adolescents with the skills, values, and attitudes that will enable them to appreciate their health and well-being, nourish respectful social and sexual relationships, understand their rights, and to make informed choices. Owing to organized community resistance and prevalent misconceptions, promoting sexual and reproductive health has been challenging, especially in conservative settings like Pakistan. This study aimed at systematically exploring communities’ perceptions regarding implementing school-based comprehensive sexuality education by conducting a cross-sectional community readiness assessment in Islamabad, Pakistan. A total of 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted with community key informants. Following the guidelines of the community readiness handbook, the interviews were transcribed and scored by two independent raters. The results indicate that, overall, the Islamabad community is at stage two of community readiness, the denial/resistance stage. Individual dimension scores indicate that knowledge of efforts, resources for efforts, knowledge about the issue, and leadership dimensions are at the denial/resistance stage. Only community climate was rated at stage three of community readiness, the vague awareness stage. This indicates that, for promoting sexuality education in the Pakistani context, it is essential to tackle resistance by sensitizing the community and the stakeholders through awareness campaigns.