Canada announces support to improve health, rights of women, girls in Uganda

The Canadian government under Global Affairs Canada has launched four projects aimed at improving the health and rights of women and girls in Uganda.

Global Affairs Canada through its partners; CARE Canada, ADRA Canada, Oxfam Canada, and Right to Play International is funding the projects, all contributing to the National Development Plan III (NDP) that is geared towards improving the quality of life of Uganda’s population by harnessing the Demographic Dividend (DD).

Speaking at the event, the Commissioner in charge of Reproductive Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jessica Nsungwa hailed the Canadian government for its commitment to supporting sexual reproductive health and adolescent rights and skills, gender equality, and economic empowerment.

“Young people in Uganda face various sexual and reproductive health risks. The GAC funded projects will help to examine factors associated with comprehensive categories of sexual and reproductive health, including sexual behavior; sexual education, and access to contraceptive services; family planning; prevention of STDs; sexual consent as a right; gender-based violence; as well as HIV testing, counseling, disclosure, and support,” Nsungwa noted.

She consequently introduced two new projects including Sexual and Reproductive Health and Economic empowerment, the Supporting Out of school Adolescent girls' Rights and Skills project to be implemented by CARE Uganda, and Restless Development.

The programs are aimed at increasing awareness of health-related rights on the part of extremely vulnerable and marginalized women and girls, particularly out-of-school adolescent girls, between 10 and 19 years old.

The project will provide training and support for educators and health care providers to ensure that adolescents have access to sexual reproductive health information and services.

Apollo B. Gabazira, CARE International’s Country Director said the joint launch is aimed at improving collaboration among partners working in Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and amplifying the partners’ voices to achieve greater impact as they advocate for increased access to SRH information and services for young people.

He urged the government and partners to support ASRH indicators by addressing negative social norms affecting ASRH including strengthening policy action against children, early and forced marriage, addressing policy gaps in relation to access to sexual reproductive health information and services for adolescents.

The uniting towards gender equality for the enjoyment of women’s and girls’ total health and rights project will be implemented by ADRA and is aimed at increasing the awareness of health-related rights for vulnerable persons, particularly those facing intersectional oppression due to gender or sexual orientation, mental or physical disability.

The project will empower individuals and communities to advocate for better sexual and reproductive health services and policies and will educate and encourage young people to engage with their communities and their governments to make their voices heard.

Frank Kiggundu, ADRA Uganda’s Acting Country Director, applauded  Global Affairs and ADRA Canada for selecting ADRA Uganda as a trusted partner to make a positive difference in the thousands of lives that the together project will empower and vowed to deliver transformational programming through partnerships.

The Sexual Health and Reproductive Education project to be implemented by Right to Play aims at increasing the awareness of health-related human rights for the most vulnerable people, particularly adolescent girls, and young women, both in and out of school, between 10 and 24 years old. their countries.

Sylvia Hope Masika, Programme Manager at Right to Play stated that the five-year program will be implemented in Adjumani and Buyende.

“The program will use a gender-transformative and rights-based approach to support sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescent youth, particularly girls and young women,” he added.

The Stand Up for Adolescent Girls and Young Women’s Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights project to be implemented by Oxfam aims at increasing SRHR for the most marginalized and vulnerable people, particularly adolescent girls and young women between 15 to 24 years old, including those with intersecting vulnerabilities due to sexual or gender orientation, or their status as refugees or internally displaced persons.

The project will build capacity for SRHR advocacy at the local, national and regional levels.

“All stakeholders are called upon to support this project implementation as we can achieve much together as a team to address SRHR issues affecting women and girls right from homes, the community, national and global levels,” said. Francis Odokorach, the Country Director of Oxfam.

In 2021, Canada announced funding for over 5 to 7 years, for 11 projects with Canadian health partners globally to support SRHR projects specifically focusing on vulnerable groups, particularly those facing intersectional oppression due to gender or sexual orientation, mental or physical disability or indigeneity, marginalized women and girls, and in and out of school adolescents.

The projects will help improve the quality of, access to, and demand for integrated health services and information for women, adolescents, and children at the community, health facility, and system levels.