Imbalances in authorship, geographic and institutional contexts, and funding sources in research on gender approaches to sexual and reproductive health in Africa: a scoping review

National research leadership is critical for generating locally responsive knowledge, especially grounded in gender approaches, given its engagement with local social contexts. We conducted a focused analysis of a scoping review to examine patterns in authorship, geographic and institutional contexts, and funding sources, in studies that apply gender approaches to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) across Africa. The review examined 45 publications in PubMed and Scopus (2012 - 2022) and included consultation with African gender and health experts. Our analysis revealed unequal distribution of papers across sub-regions in Africa (48.9% were based in Southern Africa, 37.8% in Eastern Africa, 11.1% in Western Africa, and 2.1% in Northern Africa). The distribution of articles by first and last authors' country of residence depicted disparity between authors in high-income countries and those in Africa, and between authors based in South Africa and those stationed in the rest of Africa (USA 46.7%, Europe 17.8%, Canada 2.2%, South Africa 22.2%, and rest of Africa 11.1%). Similarly, unequal patterns exist regarding the distribution of last authors (USA 42.9%, Europe 9.5%, Canada 4.8%, South Africa 28.6%, and the rest of Africa 14.3%). One-fifth of the papers feature no local authors. Funding sources shows a stark difference, with just 9.4% of the funding coming from Africa, exclusively South Africa, and the rest originating from high-income countries (USA 36.5%, UK 14.1%, Canada 8.2%, and Sweden 5.9%). The authors call for ensuring local ownership and leadership of research in Africa, and increasing domestic investment and addressing disparities across sub-regions.