WomenLead

WomenLead is CEDPA’s flagship training program. It builds leadership abilities, technical expertise and program management skills of women dedicated to making a difference on a range of critical issues.

2009 Workshop

WomenLead in Repositioning Reproductive Health

Workshop Overview

The USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1, is implementing an important training event to build the capacity of women leaders to reinvigorate family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) programs, funding and policies within their communities and countries.

Reproductive health (RH) is a crucial component of development, yet access to quality services that meet the needs of women and their families remains a challenge. Governments and donors face funding constraints and competing health priorities. HIV and AIDS have led many already overburdened health systems to prioritize the pandemic to the disadvantage of RH services. Calls to integrate family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services with HIV programs have gone largely unnoticed, and political realities have all but removed adolescent reproductive health from current health portfolios. Results are as expected—decreases in contraceptive prevalence, increased unmet need for family planning, continued high maternal mortality, widespread gender-based violence, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and stove-piped service delivery programs.

Overview

The WomenLead in Repositioning Reproductive Health workshop was designed to address these challenges by developing a cadre of confident and highly skilled women who can assume leadership in advocating effective reproductive health policies, programs, and increased funding streams; reinvigorate health sectors with effective reproductive health services; and design and implement integrated service delivery models that reflect best practices.

WomenLead participants were early to mid-career women from civil society, government, and political bodies who are currently working to ensure access to gender-sensitive, quality FP/RH services at national, sub-national or community levels.

The three-week workshop was intensive and highly participatory. Working in a supportive learning environment participants enhance technical knowledge and skills, engage in south-south exchange, and develop strategies for effective RH advocacy efforts. WomenLead leveraged the rich and varied technical expertise of the Washington DC RH community to offer the latest data and information on successful programming approaches and advocacy tools for expanded and improved family planning, maternal health, and adolescent reproductive health.