A Year in Review: Technical Publications & Resources

It has been an exciting year at EngenderHealth, not least because of what we have learned. Our incredible staff and partners have carried out in-depth research, reviewed and analyzed data, and developed a variety of publications to share our learnings, expertise, and experience with others. They have updated organizational strategies to better meet the current global climate and created language guides to ensure our communication is accurate, nonjudgmental, destigmatizing, and inclusive of the diversity of our partners and impact populations. We prize this collaboration!

From project briefs, GYSI analyses, articles in peer-reviewed journals, new language guides, and an updated abortion strategy to meet the current moment—our 2023 fiscal year has been one of reflection, learning, and growth. The breadth of knowledge covered in these publications is a testament to the work of our staff and partners.

Publication Highlights

Among the publications from our 2023 fiscal year is our recently updated strategy to expand abortion rights. EngenderHealth has a decades-long commitment to supporting national and local partners to increase access to comprehensive abortion care, and we recognize the vital engagement of many other global, regional, national, and local organizations in this critical work. We also understand that to have the most significant impact and be the best partner we can be—especially amid current challenges—we must crystallize our approach to supporting safe abortion. In this context, we shared our updated strategy for expanding abortion rights, equity, and access for a gender-equal world.   

Over the years, EngenderHealth has set forth principles to ensure our language helps us affect the changes we wish to see. We strive to use language that is accurate, nonjudgmental, destigmatizing, and inclusive of the diversity of our partners and impact populations. This year we expanded our language guides to include the more than one billion people worldwide who live with some form of disability. People with disabilities (PWD) routinely experience overwhelming barriers when accessing healthcare, including the negative attitudes of service providers (for instance, the common misconception that PWD are asexual and unfit to parent), inadequate facility accommodations, a lack of appropriate communication resources and services, and financial challenges (WHO 2021). The principles outlined in our People with Disabilities Language Guide provide overarching guidance on how we think about and use language in our work as well as more detailed applications related to PWDs.

EngenderHealth’s Scaling Up Family Planning (SuFP) Program works to enhance the capacity of the national health system to deliver inclusive and comprehensive sexual reproductive health services to 2.3 million Tanzanians. The program prioritizes reaching underserved populations—including gender-based violence survivors, young people, and PWD. Our project technical brief, “Delivering Inclusive Family Planning Services to Tanzanian Communities: EngenderHealth’s Scaling Up Family Planning Program’s Adaptations and Successes,” reviews our program outreach strategy to better reach these underserved populations. We hope other implementing partners and government actors can draw on the positive results, findings, and strategy in this brief to contribute to a model for nationally strengthening FP services.

The Partnering to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Eliminate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in West and Central Africa program is strengthening partnerships among youth-led organizations and feminist activists and organizations in the region to improve laws, standards, guidelines, and procedures for SRHR and GBV in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire—in alignment with respective government commitments. In the project technical brief, “Partnering to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Eliminate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in West and Central Africa Perspectives of and Reflections from Working with Nine Youth-Led Organizations in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire,” we share thoughtful feedback and lessons learned from our youth-led partner organizations. It is clear that equitable partnerships—and meaningful participation of youth-led organizations—are vital to achieving SRHR outcomes, and we will take these lessons into future programming.

In Ethiopia, there are over 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), an estimated 40% of whom have unmet need for modern contraceptives. Building on EngenderHealth’s experience in implementing SRHR programming and support for service delivery, the 30-month SRHR Response for IDPs program created urgency around the SRH needs of IDPs, particularly girls and women, and adapted activities to enable IDPs to access a continuum of care for comprehensive SRHR. The article “Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia’s Somali Region: A Qualitative Process Evaluation” was published in Global Health: Science and Practice, a peer-reviewed journal that acts as a resource for public health professionals who design, implement, manage, evaluate, and support health programs in low- and middle-income countries. In this article, we share the lessons from the program and offer guidance for organizations and government entities seeking to design and implement SRHR programs in humanitarian settings.

Technical Publications & Resources: July 2022–July 2023

The following publications from July 2022 to July 2023 contribute to one of EngenderHealth’s driving values—reflection. We are committed to questioning, challenging, learning, and adapting as part of our work. We center evidence by documenting and reviewing our work and results, conducting rigorous studies, and applying our findings and the lessons learned to improve all our programs and contribute to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender equality. We are pleased to share these learnings with you. 

Organizational Reports & Strategies

Annual Impact Report Fiscal Year 2022 (Summary)

EngenderHealth’s Strategy for Expanding Abortion Rights, Equity, and Access for a Gender-Equal World

EngenderHealth Partnerships Summary

Language Guides

Gender-Based Violence Language GuideFrench Version

People with Disabilities Language GuideFrench Version

Program Reports

Tarunya What Adolescents Want: Findings from EngenderHealth’s Study of Social Determinants of Adolescent Health and Development in Bihar, India brief

Data Quality Assessment and Supportive Supervision Practices for Improved Quality of Data and Services in Tanzania: Lessons from EngenderHealth’s Scaling up Family Planning in Tanzania Project

Delivering Inclusive Family Planning Services to Tanzanian Communities EngenderHealth’s Scaling Up Family Planning Program’s Adaptations and Successes

Facilitating Project Transition and Sustainability through Government Engagement and Localization: Lessons Learned from EngenderHealth’s Expanding Access to Postabortion Care Project in Tanzania

Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Analysis in Bihar, India

Supporting Young People and People with Disabilities to Access Inclusive Services in Chakechake District A Success Story from EngenderHealth’s Scaling up Family Planning in Tanzania Project

Transforming Postabortion and Comprehensive Abortion Care in Zanzibar: Lessons Learned from EngenderHealth’s Expanding Access to Postabortion Care Project in Tanzania

A Rights-Based Approach for Enhancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Project in Ethiopia: EngenderHealth Project Brief

Ensemble: A Regional Initiative to Support the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence in West and Central Africa

Integration of Family Planning within Ethiopian Primary Healthcare Settings: A Desk Review Lessons Learned from EngenderHealth’s FP Integration Project

Partnering to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Eliminate Gender-Based Violence in West and Central Africa: Project BriefFrench Version

Partnering to Advance SRHR and Eliminate GBV in West and Central Africa: Perspectives of and Reflections from Working with Nine Youth-Led Organizations in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’IvoireFrench Version

The Status of Family Planning Integration into Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services in Ethiopian Healthcare Facilities

Understanding Barriers to Family Planning Service Integration in Agrarian and Pastoralist Areas of Ethiopia through a Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Analysis

Partnerships and Power: Understanding the Dynamics Between International and National Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Organizations 

Provider-Driven Solutions for Respectful, Empathetic and Safe Surgical Obstetric Care in Karnataka 

Implementation of Task Sharing Guidelines for Long-Acting and Permanent Methods 

Informed Consent for Cesarean Section in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Brief 

TIME for SRHR Initiative: Landscape Analysis Preliminary Results 

Women’s Experience of Peripartum Hysterectomy and Provision of Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Implementation of the World Health Organization’s Task Sharing Guidelines for Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives and Permanent Methods Across Momentum Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics Countries: Desk Review

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Food Security, Gender, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A Fragile Golden Thread

Capacity Building in Operational Research On Obstetric Fistula: Experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Methods and Measures to Assess Health Care Provider Behavior and Behavioral Determinants in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health: A Rapid Review

Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia’s Somali Region: A Qualitative Process Evaluation

Down but Not Out: Vasectomy Is Faring Poorly Almost Everywhere—We Can Do Better to Make It a True Method Option

Comparing Three Models of Fistula Care Among Five Facilities in Nigeria and Uganda” Chapter In A Multidisciplinary Approach to Obstetric Fistula in Africa

Thank you to our staff and partners who have contributed to these publications. We greatly value your expertise and experience. We look forward to another strong year of publications ahead, where we continue to review program data and results, both successes and failures, to improve our processes and increase our impact; think hard about the language we use, and make changes so we are inclusive and respectful with our words; and share lessons across projects and programs, and adapt strategies for use in new places.

Please visit our extensive library to explore more of our technical publications and resources.