Young People and Sexual Agency in Rural Uganda

This paper offers an analysis of young people's sexual agency in rural Uganda. Drawing on definitions of agency from within the international development literature, it focuses on: decision-making processes leading to young people's involvement in relationships; actions undertaken to maintain 'secret' relationships in contexts where young people's sexual agency is generally prohibited; transactional and gendered negotiations between young people involved within a relationship; and a range of outcomes arising from young people's sexual activity. An understanding of the dynamics and temporal nature of young people's sexual agency, and the consequences that follow from it, challenges the widely held view that young people do not know what they are doing in relation to their sexual health. This should enable practitioners to identify avenues for developing HIV prevention and sexual health programmes that are more fully based in, and driven by, the realities of young people's sexual lives.