The Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS and Nutrition has bemoaned policy gaps in addressing Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) among the youth.

According to the Committee’s vice chairperson Darlington Harawa, the country’s health policies on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) do not correspond to each other which affect messaging among young people.

“We have sometime policies that so not speak to each other, like one of the challenges is the issue of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights messaging,” said Harawa.

“Because policies in education they have restriction in terms of age limits and polices that are at the ministry of health they also have their own age limits.”

The lawmaker has since stressed on the need for addressing policy gaps aiming at having interventions that are effective among the youth.

He said: “For these policies to speak to one another, it becomes difficult so it’s an appeal to those in authority and stakeholders intervene so that we can have that can speak to each other.”

“So that access to HIV/AIDS, SRHR and STIs information should be the same across the board.”

The Committee has since called upon continued interventions on condom promotions and programming as one way of addressing the issue of STIs.