Sexual Pleasure Checklist
INTRODUCTION
The checklist has been produced by the Share-Net Netherlands Community of Practice on Sexual Pleasure, and was inspired by the work of the Global Advisory Board on Sexual Health and Wellbeing.
For more information of sexual pleasure and wellbeing, please see the Community of Practice on Sexual Pleasure’s resource page.
AIM OF THIS CHECKLIST
This checklist aims to stimulate reflection and spark discussions on how sexual pleasure and wellbeing can be (more) integrated into SRHR programmes. The final goal is the process you go through to reach a consensus on the scores within your own context: the discussions that arise when going through the questions together, and the ideas to improve the integration of sexual pleasure that ensue from these discussions. Therefore, certain words or questions can be interpreted in different ways and if you encounter such differences in interpretation during your assessment, this can be a great source for further reflection and discussion, to understand the different possible perspectives. It is also fine that the answers remain subjective, and that certain questions are not applicable or impossible to operationalise in certain programmes and contexts.
HOW TO USE THIS CHECKLIST
It works best when you bring together a group of people involved in the programme/activities, including staff, volunteers and beneficiaries. For example, when you want to assess your clinic services, bring together medical/non-medical staff, educators, management, volunteers and experts from outside and representatives of the community or beneficiaries. One person needs to be the facilitator, and everyone should feel that their views are being heard.
- The checklist is a first step in improving Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) policies and programmes by assessing how far sexual pleasure and wellbeing are integrated and addressed, and highlighting if there are any major gaps.
- For each statement and question, you can fill in whether your SRH policies/ programmes are addressing the issue, not addressing the issue or not sufficiently addressing the issue. It also includes space for comments and actions to improve the situation.
- You need to be reflective and analyse the answers and discuss why certain aspects are, or are not, sufficiently addressed within your programme and think about how this could be rectified.
- You can decide to share the results with relevant stakeholders for approval and validation.
- You need to decide which gaps need to be prioritised and how they can be addressed.
- Make an action plan for making changes and decide how to monitor and evaluate progress.
The PDF version of the Sexual Pleasure Checklist can also be downloaded from here.
Be aware that the statements of the checklist are representing ‘an ideal situation’. No programme will be able to respond 100% yes to all the statements included. Please see this as the end result we all want to strive towards.