Intervention framework: sexual and reproductive health and rights

While significant progress has been made in SRHR over the past 20 years, the main results in terms of maternal mortality and access to essential SRH services remain below the targets set successively and are marked by huge disparities at global level.

Faced with this situation, only the implementation of more holistic strategies can fill the gaps and guarantee the right of everyone to make decisions about their own bodies and to have access to essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.

DOCUMENT’S PURPOSE

Overall, this document is part of the “health and nutrition alignment” strategy, a document that presents the change of approach begun several years ago in the fight against undernutrition, with a more holistic approach to health. This framework for action on rights and sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) aims to define the approaches taken by the organization, its vision of the issue, the changes expected from its action, as well as the priorities and methods of intervention.

METHODOLOGY

Drawn up following a participatory process involving teams from the French head office, country offices and the ACFIN technical network, it reflects the organisation’s identity, capacities and particularities, as well as its potential limitations. It should make it easier for teams to understand ACF’s SRHR mandate, to guide the definition and implementation of projects and to better understand the involvement and role of the various technical sectors.

CONTENT

The approaches adopted by ACF in the field of sexual and reproductive health mainly concern the following three aspects:

• Placing the aim of interventions at the level of individuals and their rights to access SRH services.
• Thinking in terms of an integrated vision of sexual and reproductive health and nutrition.
• Promoting collaboration and partnerships with local stakeholders and the populations concerned.

While all the services in the SRH continuum of care are commonly recognised as essential services, ACF’s work nevertheless focuses on a range of prioritised services that form the core of its SRH intervention. These are mainly interventions that have specific links with the nutrition sector and are also recognised as having a high impact on health.