Action Canada for SHR Family Planning Federation of Canad

Published purpose

This project aims to address key gender inequality and human rights issues, particularly: harmful social norms regarding gender and sexuality; lack of adequate information on or access to comprehensive SRH services particularly for safe abortion; lack of decision-making power by girls and women regarding their health and sexuality; as well as limited capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) including women’s rights organizations and youth-led organizations to effectively advocate for SRHR at local, national, regional and international levels. SHIFTS will also strengthen the resilience of health systems in the focus countries to deliver integrated SRHR services through focusing on the WHO’s building blocks of health systems including service delivery health workforce, access to essential medicines, and leadership/governance. Project activities include: (1) Providing technical support to selected facilities for the development and implementation of quality improvement mechanisms (including procurement); (2) delivering trainings to health care providers on gender responsive SRH services including abortion; (3) delivering comprehensive sexuality education to adolescents and young people from marginalized communities in and out of schools; (4) providing SRHR awareness campaigns to community influencers; (5) providing technical assistance to local CSOs in project countries on advocating for SRHR at local, national, regional and international levels; and (6) delivering technical assistance to Canadian CSOs on promoting human rights based approaches to SRH among Canadians. The project is expected to directly benefit 2 450 094 people ( 2,039,193 women, girls and young women and 410 901 men and boys) targeting adolescent girls, women and the most marginalized communities in the three focus countries including persons with disabilities, LGBTQ communities and internally displaced persons. The project will also indirectly benefit 4 697 990 people including community members, health care workers, teachers, youth peer educators, youth networks and community leaders.