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Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights |
Women in less developed countries are 30 times more likely to die from reproductive health-related causes than women in industrialized countries, and it is estimated that fully one-third of the illness among women aged 15-44 in developing countries is related to pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, reproductive tract infections, and HIV and AIDS.
Options' first major contract in 1992 was as DFID's Resource Centre in Population and Reproductive Health, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services have remained at the centre of our agenda ever since. Key areas of expertise include contraceptive service provision; quality of care; logistics management; design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SRH programmes; increasing access and strengthening systems of accountability between service providers and clients; maternal, child and newborn health; adolescent SRH, and HIV and AIDS.
In Cambodia Options is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to build capacity and enable greater access to maternal, sexual and reproductive health services. The project is focusing on the implementation of a national plan to reduce unsafe abortion, particularly amongst poor and vulnerable women, through the roll-out of comprehensive abortion care and long-term family planning.
The importance of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Rights (SRHSR) in contributing to progress towards MDG 5 (on maternal health) and MDG 6 (on combating HIV and AIDS, Malaria and TB), has been acknowledged with the inclusion of "universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health services" as a target under MDG 5. Options' work is underpinned by a strong belief in sexual and reproductive health and rights and to this end we work with different vulnerable groups such as young women engaged in transactional sex, prison groups and mobile populations.
In addition to improving access to services and service delivery, we also address more fundamental issues which are often deep-rooted within societies and culture. We work with partners to understand the social contexts that shape poor people's reproductive and sexual behaviours and, informed by these realities, we support partners such as Society for Family Health in Nigeria to design appropriate and effective behaviour change communication interventions.
In Rwanda, Options worked with young men and women to better understand sexual and reproductive behaviour for the design a national SRH programme targeting young people through multi-media channels. In Nigeria we have been providing on-going, independent evaluation of the DFID-funded Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS (PSRHH) Reduction Project, which aims to achieve behaviour change conducive to improving sexual and reproductive health among vulnerable and poor populations.
To learn more about Options' work in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, contact Alison Dembo Rath
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