Through The Challenge Initiative, IntraHealth will Improve Access to Contraception in Cities across West Africa

IntraHealth International is proud to announce its participation in The Challenge Initiative(TCI), a new three-year urban reproductive health program funded by the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation.According to the United Nations,66% of people around the world will be living in urban areas by 2050—2.5 billion more people than today.Ninety percent of this increase will be in cities in Asia and Africa. Despite increasing urbanization, the poorest people living in cities rarely have adequate access to health information and services.TCI builds on the former Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (URHI), which the Gates Foundation initiated to test a comprehensive approach to improve contraceptive access in cities in India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal.IntraHealth led the Senegal URHI project, orInitiative Sénégalaise de Santé Urbaine (ISSU), and partnered with international NGOs, local community-based organizations, municipal health teams, and religious leaders to promote the benefits of family planning, dispel myths and rumors about contraceptives, encourage male involvement, and improve the quality of family planning services. ISSU assisted the Government of Senegal to increase access to modern contraception in target cities with greatest improvement seen among the poorest quintiles. From 2012 to 2014, for instance, thenational modern contraceptive prevalence rate jumped from 12% to 20%. With such impressive results, the Government of Senegal has renew...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news