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Help us create change that lasts, delivering quality health care in the world’s poorest communities.
“Partnerships: Working Together for Global Health” was the theme of this year’s International Conference for Global Health. Through a variety of presentations, panels, and roundtable sessions at the Conference, EngenderHealth experts highlighted the crucial role of partnerships in their efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health worldwide.
Activities included:
Auxiliary Event: Sustaining Long-Term Partnerships in a Short-Term World
Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 5-7 pm, Congressional Room B
Hosted by The ACQUIRE Project, a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), of which EngenderHealth is managing partner.
Led by The ACQUIRE Project, this learning seminar examined partnerships in the context of foreign assistance. Acknowledging the challenges of realizing sustainable development in time-bound projects, the seminar explored how development professionals can overcome short-term constraints to achieve lasting partnerships and impact. ACQUIRE program managers from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Tanzania, and Uganda shared field-based experiences and perspectives.
Panel: The Obstetric Fistula Partnership: Building Awareness, Capacity, Equity in Africa
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 2:30-4:30 pm, Congressional Room B
Moderated by Dr. Ana Langer, President of EngenderHealth. Presenters include Dr. Joseph Ruminjo, Senior Medical Associate in the Safe Motherhood Program at EngenderHealth.
Through a five-year partnership, EngenderHealth, the Women’s Dignity Project, and the United Nations Population Fund are addressing the social, medical, and political aspects of prevention and treatment of obstetric fistula in Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. At sites throughout these countries, EngenderHealth has increased capacity for emergency obstetric care, infection prevention, and fistula repair and counseling, while developing a groundbreaking counseling curriculum on fistula for health care providers. Dr. Ruminjo discussed quality improvement approaches for fistula services, as well as the prevention, treatment, and counseling needs of women at risk of or living with fistula.
Roundtable Session: How to Engage Private Providers to Introduce Underutilized Methods
Thursday, May 31, 2:30-4:30 pm, Ambassador Ballroom, Table 10
Presented by John Pile, Senior Technical Advisor for The ACQUIRE Project.
As the public sector concentrates increasingly on issues such as HIV/AIDS, health care providers in the private sector are being asked to provide family planning services. Still, there are few success stories of family planning programs led by private sector providers. What can be done differently to promote and sustain private sector services for underutilized methods of contraception, such as the intrauterine device (IUD), implants, and vasectomy? Mr. Pile discussed the importance of new kinds of partnerships between the public and private sector to increase access to family planning services. He also shared lessons learned from EngenderHealth’s family planning programs in Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines, Turkey, Uganda, and other countries.
Roundtable Session: Repositioning Vasectomy through Partnerships
Thursday, May 31, 2007, 2:30-4:30 pm, Ambassador Ballroom, Table 13
Presented by Jane Wickstrom, Team Leader for Improving Access to Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services for The ACQUIRE Project
Although male vasectomy is safe, simple, cost-efficient, and highly effective, it remains the least-known and least-utilized method of contraception in many countries. Applying lessons learned over decades of programming and research, The ACQUIRE Project is working to reposition vasectomy as a more widely used option for couples who have completed their families. This session examined ACQUIRE’s comprehensive programs in Ghana and Honduras, which have expanded vasectomy services by increasing both client demand and provider capacity.
Panel: Family Planning and HIV Integration: Essential Partnerships for Better Health
Friday, June 1, 2007, 2:45-4:45 pm, Empire Ballroom
Presenters include Betty Farrell, Medical Associate for The ACQUIRE Project
Integration of family planning and HIV services can help to prevent both unintended pregnancies and new HIV infections, as well as strengthen treatment programs such as prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission of HIV and antiretroviral (ART) therapy. Ms. Farrell described the partnership process and shared successes and lessons learned from integration of family planning and ART services at sites in Ghana and Uganda.
Poster Presentation: Partnerships to Revitalize the Intrauterine Device
Maternal and Reproductive Health, Poster 77
Presented by Dr. Roy Jacobstein, Clinical Director of The ACQUIRE Project
Despite being a highly safe, effective, and cost-efficient method of contraception, the intrauterine device (IUD) remains underutilized in many areas of the developing world. Through innovative approaches to boost demand and ensure the availability of equipment and services, The ACQUIRE Project has led successful efforts to revitalize the IUD in countries including Bangladesh, Guinea, Honduras, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda. This poster presentation highlighted the many partnerships formed by ACQUIRE to increase IUD use worldwide.
Poster Presentation: Public/Private Partnerships to Address Obstetric Fistula in Uganda
Maternal and Reproductive Health, Poster 86
Presented by Julie Wiltshire, Country Director for Uganda
With support from EngenderHealth, a unique program model in Uganda is linking faith-based institutions, which have experience in fistula repair, with nearby public-sector facilities, which have the capacity to provide prevention services, including emergency cesarean sections and family planning. EngenderHealth has provided training in clinical repair, prevention services, and counseling skills, as well as necessary equipment and supplies, to the partners. This poster presentation explored the challenges and ultimate successes of the partners’ efforts to prevent and treat fistula.