Expanding Access to Existing Family Planning and Reproductive Health Options
More than 100 million women remain without access to family planning, and many times that number don’t receive other essential reproductive health services. This is particularly true in the world’s poorest region, sub-Saharan Africa, where almost a quarter of women still lack family planning services and information. This urgent need is underscored by an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
Evidence shows that having an array of contraceptive methods and other reproductive health options increases their use and reduces maternal death rates. Despite their public health benefits, many reproductive health services and family planning options are still not readily available.
To address this, the Program supports work to improve quality of care, increase the breadth of services and outreach, improve laws and policies by basing them on sound science, and advance research on how to encourage people to seek good health care and to design programs that provide it.
Illustrative grants include:
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Support for a nationwide launch of emergency contraception campaign in Kenya with extensive media outreach and public and private sector involvement to increase knowledge and appropriate utilization of the method;
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Support of legal reform and policy implementation guaranteeing access to safe abortion, training of health care providers in safe abortion care, and;
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Support for advocacy to build political and financial commitment to ensuring universal access to female condoms, the only available woman-initiated method that protects against both unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Incorporating Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services into HIV/AIDS Programs
Unsafe sex is the cause of both unintended pregnancies and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, yet efforts to combat these two problems are poorly coordinated. This unfortunate lack of connection results in countless missed opportunities, especially in high HIV prevalence regions, and does not serve well the needs of women, men, and young people for accurate and complete family planning and reproductive health information and services.
The Program will support efforts to link family planning and reproductive health services with HIV/AIDS programs. Specifically, the Foundation will support demonstration projects that concretely connect HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care programs with identified family planning and reproductive health needs; assessment of best practice models; and the convening of technical experts and policymakers in developed and developing countries to stimulate new approaches to service delivery, research, and advocacy. Our grantmaking emphasizes primary HIV/AIDS prevention and helping women living with HIV/AIDS meet their reproductive health needs.
Illustrative grants include:
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Support for a competitive request for proposals in sub-Saharan Africa that would incorporate family planning into HIV/AIDS care and treatment programs and that have a strong research and evaluation component to examine impacts;
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Support for convening on best practices in the treatment of sexual violence in sub-Saharan Africa to ensure that emergency contraception for pregnancy prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV/AIDS prevention are an integral part of sexual assault treatment programs; and
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Support for development of country proposals to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria that integrate sexual and reproductive health into HIV/AIDS programs.