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The United Nations Population Fund - UNFPA
in Ecuador
Reproductive
Health
including Family Planning and Sexual Health
The main objective of
the reproductive health programme is to improve the use
of quality reproductive health services by poor women,
men and adolescents. UNFPA’s programme concentrates in
two areas: 1) increasing awareness of and access to
quality reproductive health services for men and women
living in the 10 cantons where the programme is focused;
and 2) increasing awareness of and access to quality
sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents
living in 14 cantons (including the four cantons covered
by an integrated adolescent reproductive health project
funded by the United Nations Foundation.
UNFPA support is
directed at strengthening the country’s reproductive
health delivery networks, including those run by the
Ministry of Health, NGOs and private providers in the 10
cantons where the Fund is working. Emphasis is being
placed on improving the quality of care and in
supporting a gender- and culturally-sensitive approach
to the delivery of RH services. Hence, UNFPA is
supporting a package of reproductive health education
and services that include basic family planning, STI and
HIV/AIDS prevention, prenatal and post-natal care,
referral to emergency obstetric services, and prevention
of domestic violence.
UNFPA support for the
reproductive health delivery system is being channeled
mainly through the facilities of the Ministry of Health,
local health councils, NGOs, programmes supported by
other donors and community action groups.
UNFPA support to sexual
and reproductive health for adolescents also focuses on
local level interventions. Since a majority of rural
adolescents do not attend school, outreach strategies
have been developed, working directly with adolescents
through sports clubs, their parents, health care
providers and local communities.
As part of the three
country adolescent health programme funded by the UN
Foundation (which includes Ecuador, Nicaragua and
Haiti), a six-month preparatory project on adolescent
reproductive health care was completed in 1999. During
this initial phase, a study of adolescent sexual and
reproductive health needs was conducted among
adolescents, their parents, teachers, church leaders,
mayors and health care workers in three southern
provinces of the country. This project is now in the
implementation phase, with $800,000 allocated for the
design of educational and service delivery components
based on the needs survey conducted during the
preparatory phase.
UNFPA is also assisting
the Government in seeking support to ensure continuity
in the supply and distribution of reproductive health
commodities, including contraceptives. In early 2000, an
inter-institutional contraceptive logistics committee
was set up to provide support and direction.
Population
and Development
The main aim of the
population and development programme is to improve the
capacity of local health authorities to integrate
demographic information into their regional and local
development planning. The expected output is to increase
the capacity of local authorities to incorporate the
population dimension into planning and programming.
In support of the
Government’s decentralization efforts, UNFPA is
assisting 10 cantons in the use of gender-disaggregated
population data in order to better plan for current and
future reproductive health and family planning needs.
The national planning office is assisting in this effort
by training local officials in the use of these data
sets.
Advocacy
UNFPA-supported advocacy
activities are an integral part of the overall country
programme for Ecuador. Advocacy is now an intrinsic part
of training and supervision in the reproductive health
field in general and gender activities in particular.
UNFPA’s advocacy work
with adolescents has been particularly successful. In
1999, working with adolescents through Jambi Huasi, an
indigenous health clinic in Otavalo, clinic personnel were
able to organize adolescent groups to talk about their
views and needs, including sexual and reproductive health.
Throughout the current
Country Programme, UNFPA support to municipalities has
been extremely successful in motivating NGOs to advocate
for reproductive health among poor marginal communities
and among adolescents. Demand has been high for materials
developed by NGOs, in collaboration with municipalities,
especially four booklets on sex education written and
produced by adolescents in Quechua and a series of training
materials on gender and reproductive health developed by a
consortium of NGOs in the municipality of Quito, with
support from UNFPA and the British Embassy.
On-going advocacy
activities are aimed, in particular, at disadvantaged
communities and adolescents.
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