Table 4 Major content domains and categories – synergies, challenges and contradictions influencing implementation of CSE

Policy synergies for CSE implementation

a. Policy window for adoption of SRHR opened around the 1990s in Zambia.

b. Promotion of inclusive development via education

c. Adoption of an integrated approach in dealing with SRHR problems.

d. Strategies that aim to prevent adolescent pregnancies and child marriages.

e. Criminalization of GBV

Policy challenges, contradictions, and silences

a. Restrictive delivery of contraceptives in schools

b. Defining childhood: legal controversies and implications for child marriage

c. Grey zones on age of sexual consent and access to SRH services

d. Inadequate disability inclusiveness in SRHR legal frameworks

e. Policy silences / contentious topics: LGBTQI + rights and abortion