DILLA, SNNP Region - UNFPA, the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency, together with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) handed over emergency reproductive health kits and medical equipment worth $237,521 to representatives of Gedeo Zone (SNNPR) and West Guji Zone (Oromia Region) in a ceremony held in Dilla town on November 14, 2022. The support was made as part of the 5-year ”Integrated Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme for Adolescents and Youth” funded by KOICA.
The life-saving supplies and equipment will strengthen the capacity of health institutions to ensure adolescent and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, promote safe delivery, and end preventable maternal deaths in the two zones.
Ms. Suzanne Mandong, UNFPA Ethiopia Representative a.i., highlighted during the ceremony “the programme is playing a pivotal role in empowering adolescents and youth by making choices and services available as well as developing the capacity of healthcare providers and institutions to ensure informed choices.”
The inter-communal conflicts in the two zones in recent years resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people increasing the vulnerability of adolescents and youth to HIV, sexually transmitted infections and other sexual & reproductive health problems as well as sexual and gender-based violence. The existing health system and services in the two zones were seriously weakened by the humanitarian situation impacting access to sexual and reproductive health information, counselling and services.
Building back Youth-Friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
In line with the humanitarian-peace-development nexus which UNFPA is promoting in building resilience, the KOICA-funded programme is ensuring that comprehensive adolescent and youth-friendly services are included in humanitarian responses in the conflict-affected areas in the two zones.
During the visit to the Youth Friendly Service (YFS) Corner at Chito Health Center in Yirgacheffe woreda, Mr. Fikru Assefa, Head of Maternal and Child Health Office at Yirga Chefe Health Office, explained to the UNFPA and KOICA Delegation that “since the implementation of the KOICA-supported programme, the percentage of institutional delivery increased from 39% in 2020 to 44% in 2022 while the percentage of family planning utilization rose from 80% to 88% during the same period”.
Since its inception in 2019, the KOICA programme has reached more than 75,298 adolescents and youth through peer-to-peer education and life skills trainings on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Family Planning, trained more than 300 service providers and strengthened the capacity of 42 health facilities in the provision sexual and reproductive health services.
In addition, two Women and Girls Friendly Spaces (WGFS) and two One-Stop Centers were established to support the provision of comprehensive gender-based violence services to survivors, including the provision of dignity kits. Two ambulances were also supplied to strengthen the referral linkage in the health system.
“We look forward to continuing our fruitful efforts on expanding SRH and gender-based violence prevention and response in Gedeo and West Guji zones”, said Ms. Stephanie Kim, KOICA’s Deputy Representative in Ethiopia during the ceremony.
