Arab
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Reproductive health
Population and
development strategies
Advocacy
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Africa
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Interregional Programmes
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Reproductive Health
Reproductive health. During 1997, UNFPA supported a range of reproductive health
activities in the region, including: increasing access to reproductive health information
and services; providing training to service providers; standardizing guidelines and
protocols; providing contraceptives and basic medical equipment; and promoting
partnerships with NGOs. At the heart of UNFPA programming in the region is an emphasis on
building national capacity for the delivery and management of sustainable reproductive
health services. Management training supported by the Fund has enabled health
administrators in several countries in the region to implement effective measures to
improve service delivery efficiency and strengthen personnel management and management
information systems.
UNFPA-supported country programmes in the region intensified their efforts to raise
awareness about the reproductive health needs of young people and underscored the
importance of removing barriers to the provision of reproductive health information and
services. The Ministry of Health in Bahrain, with technical assistance from UNFPA, has
developed a reproductive health strategy for adolescents which aims at upgrading services
and information in order to reach 50 per cent of youth and adolescents by the year 2008.
In Egypt, UNFPA is supporting an IEC project under which two national NGOs have provided
training to 200 peer educators who in turn have trained 3,000 young men and women on
reproductive health and gender issues.
Through summer youth camps and community-based initiatives, NGOs are playing an important
role in addressing the reproductive health needs of young people in Jordan. In Tunisia,
the National Family and Population Office, with UNFPA support, has launched an innovative
project to reach out-of- school and at-risk youth and facilitate their access to
reproductive health services and information. In Yemen, innovative communication
strategies have been implemented to reach rural youth through peer groups of the boy
scouts and girl guides. The reproductive health needs of young people in refugee and
emergency situations are also being addressed. For example, UNFPA, in its joint efforts
with UNHCR, has supported the training of teachers, community health workers and peer
counsellors who are working with young Somali refugees in Kenya.
Activities to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, constitute
an important component of UNFPA-supported reproductive health programming in the region.
Under a joint UNFPA-UNHCR project, integrated reproductive health services, including for
STD/AIDS prevention, are being provided to some 160,000 Somali refugees in Ethiopia. In
collaboration with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), UNFPA has
established a reproductive health centre in Bosaso, Somalia, and trained 18 doctors, 45
nurses and 60 traditional birth attendants to provide a wide range of reproductive health
services and counselling, including for the prevention and management of STD/AIDS and FGM.
The prevention and management of STD/AIDS and FGM is also an integral component of all
reproductive health activities supported in the Sudan.
Promoting women’s reproductive rights is coupled with service provision in a number
of UNFPA-supported projects and programmes in the region. For example, in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, in the town of Jenin, a network of 30 females and males has been
created to conduct community-based outreach activities to promote, among other things,
male responsibility in sexual and reproductive behaviour and women’s reproductive
rights. Support has also been provided by UNFPA to assist in upgrading the capacity of
five local NGOs that are running 20 clinics providing reproductive health services. With
UNFPA support, the Women’s Centre in the Al-Bureij camp, in Gaza, has organized
several community education workshops on women’s rights, particularly reproductive
rights. Individual and group counselling has been provided by a lawyer, employed by the
centre, to women who have been victims of domestic violence.
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