IDRC to host a panel at the 11th African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights
For the panel, Qamar Mahmood, a senior program specialist at IDRC, will be joined by grantees Professor Serigne Mor Mbaye, director, Centre de Guidance Infantile Familiale, Dakar, Senegal (project on combating gender-based violence and strengthening psychosocial and reproductive health care for adolescent girls in Senegal; Phebian Ina Grant Sagnia, reproductive health and nurse specialist, Ministry of Health, The Gambia (project on strengthening access to quality comprehensive health education in The Gambia); Professor Saad Zbiri of University Mohamed VI, Morocco (project on improving access and utilization of quality sexual and reproductive health services by migrants in Morocco); and Dr. Iatimad Moutaouadia, gynecologist, Ben M’sick Hospital, Casablanca, Morocco (project on using a gender lens to address unwanted pregnancies in vulnerable girls and women in Morocco).
The panel will outline our overall programming approach, the nature and extent of IDRC’s funding investment in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa over the last 10 years, what we have achieved and the lessons learned, as well as our funding horizon for the coming years. IDRC research partners will present first-hand, on-the-ground experience of what the funding support has been able to achieve in the realm of evidence generation, enhanced research and leadership capacities, and impacts on policy and practice.
The research partners’ examples will raise specific issues such as mental health, the needs of adolescents, comprehensive sexual education, migrant and displaced populations, and gender-based violence, among others, reflecting the evidence gaps linked to SRHR issues in Africa. In response to these evidence gaps, IDRC’s funding modalities, such as calls for proposals, strategic project support and funding partnerships with other donors to expand the scope and reach of our SRHR investment, will be highlighted by the panel.
Global Health program’s African pre-announcement of its call for letters of interest on neglected areas of SRHR in sub-Saharan Africa, the ANSRHRA initiative, will also take place at the conference.