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Providing Quality Reproductive
Health in Mauritania
Mauritania is one of the most sparsely populated countries
in Africa, with just 2.6 million inhabitants spread
out across nearly 400,000 square miles of arid and semi-arid
land. The country may not have a population problem,
but it does face challenges in providing appropriate
reproductive and sexual health care. The average number
of children a woman has over the course of her reproductive
life remains high, just under 5 children per woman,
giving the country an annual growth rate of 2%.
Because
settlements are spread out and many hard to reach, rural
communities lack quality services. Reflecting this,
the infant mortality rate is 74 per 1000 live births.
Furthermore, only 8% of married women in their childbearing
years use some form of contraception. The
project has four main objectives:
- Increase
appreciation and understanding by UN agencies, NGOs,
government departments and health care providers of
the role that demand plays in improving the quality
of reproductive health services.
- Increase
understanding of the mechanisms that help women's
groups articulate their reproductive rights and develop
stronger collaboration with service providers.
- Identify
strengths of various partner organizations to improve
the quality of reproductive health at the national
level.
- Enhance
commitment and support at the national and international
levels.
At
the national level the following activities are being
carried out:
- National
workshop to sensitize health care providers and stakeholders
on reproductive health and rights.
- Capacity
building at the national level through workshops with
the aim of supporting client's initiatives to access
quality reproductive health services.
- One
day forum to promote the project among institutional
and donor partners.
At
the local level, activities include:
- Participatory
community-based education on reproductive health and
rights and analyses of the role of organized local
groups in promoting better reproductive health.
- Training
workshops for service providers regarding issues such
as micro-insurance programmes, evaluating the quality
of services, and costing of various payment schemes.
- Training
of trainers in health micro-insurance.
- Feasibility
studies examining the potential for micro-insurance
schemes to increase access to quality reproductive
health services.
- Establishemet
of a pool of trainers in reproductive rights and health
micro-insurance.
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