Duration: 2025-2032
Location: Kenya (Kilifi), Mozambique (Cabo Delgado)
Reach: 457,996, including women ages 20-49 and adolescent girls ages 10-19
Budget: $25 million CAD ($22.5 million Global Affairs Canada, $2.5 million AKFC)
Description:
The health and empowerment of women and girls is crucial to the development of a thriving, prosperous, and inclusive society. Central to this is the ability for women and adolescent girls to make decisions about their bodies and their lives and the ability to access essential, quality care, particularly pertaining to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Lack of access to SRH services is linked to poorer health and well-being, such as heightened sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), early pregnancy, and elevated maternal and neonatal mortality.
This program aims to support women and adolescent girls in select areas of Kilifi, Kenya, and Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, to improve SRHR behaviours and increase their access quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, with a particular focus on women and adolescent girls experiencing poverty, marginalization, and vulnerability. Activities include, but are not limited to:
- Working closely with communities, including men and boys, to identify and reduce barriers faced by women and girls in accessing SRH services, such as harmful attitudes and practices, lack of access to health care, and disproportionate burden of childcare and domestic work.
- Increasing the accessibility of quality SRH and nutrition services, with a focus improving access to financial and transportation services.
- Supporting the availability of SRH and nutrition services by improving health facilities and equipment, training healthcare professionals, and strengthening community health delivery to support inclusive, quality care.
- Partnering with community leaders, local civil society and women’s rights organizations, and other community and youth groups to improve SRHR awareness, education, and practices in the community and address sociocultural barriers to accessing SRHR.
In addition, STRIDES will work with managers and government officials to build capacity and strengthen data collection and analysis on SRHR, nutrition, and climate data to support data-informed decision-making on the interplay between these factors and their effect on the health and wellbeing of women and adolescent girls.
