Over the past year, CARE has continued to advance its efforts toward
its commitment to FP2020:
CARE’s IMAGINE project, which aims to delay the timing of first birth among married adolescents in Niger and Bangladesh, published a qualitative study in 2019 that examines the factors that influenced married girls’ early first birth in Niger. The article, examines the underlying social, individual and structural factors influencing married girls’ early first birth and participation in alternative opportunities in Niger.
CARE continues to generate evidence on CARE’s Community Score Card. Building on evidence from a cluster randomized trial, CARE evaluated the sustainability of the CSC through a qualitative study, completed in 2019. Results from the study will be published in 2020. Published results of a midline evaluation of CARE’s model of private, community based skilled birth attendants in Bangladesh, indicate significant and impressive increases in access to and use of key maternal health services. The findings contribute to the larger body of evidence suggesting that private-sector approaches, when coupled with robust efforts to strengthen and collaborate with the public sector, can work successfully to deliver services in underserved communities and likely have an important role to play in our efforts to achieve universal coverage.
CARE partnered with UNFPA and Syria Relief and Development to develop The AMAL Initiative which addresses the need for an adolescent-responsive intervention grounded in transformative gender and social norms approaches at both the community and health service levels. With the face of fragile contexts becoming increasingly young, this package seeks to inform the global evidence base and dialogue around adolescent SRHR nexus approaches. As co-chair of the Advocacy and Accountability Working Group for IAWG , CARE played in a leadership role in mobilizing effective, multi-stakeholder advocacy to ensure SRHR in crisis-settings was prioritized by donors, governments and civil society at key agendasetting moments including the Yemen humanitarian pledging conference, Oslo conference on SGBV, Women Deliver, and ICPD.
CARE and the Center for Reproductive Rights launched a project to develop and test a scalable model for women-driven accountability for SRH in refugee camps in Uganda. CARE also contributed to the development of a set of practical guidelines for ensuring rights-based approaches to SRH in crisis-settings; a process led by the UNHCR. Through the Youth Lead project in Cote D’Ivoire, CARE partnered with a vibrant network of youth advocates to make foundational investments to strengthen youth groups’ long-term advocacy capacity. The project also generated new strategies for building equitable and authentic partnerships with and shifting power and resources to young advocates and their organizations.
In December 2019, CARE International Malawi (which is the CSO FP2020 focal point) convened a cadre of youth leaders from Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire and DRC to share barriers, breakthroughs and innovations for ensuring meaningful leadership of young people in shaping SRHR policies and programs.
