"Expanding access to contraceptive services and improving health outcomes require services to be delivered in ways that respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of everyone who seeks, or uses contraceptive information and services. This implementation guide for ensuring human rights within contraceptive service delivery is a companion document to the WHO guidelines on Ensuring Human Rights in the Provision of Contraceptive Information and Services: Guidance and Recommendations. This implementation guide sets out core minimum actions that can be taken at different levels of the health system, and provides examples of implementation of the recommendations in the WHO guidelines. This guide is addressed to midlevel policymakers and programme managers/implementers involved with family planning service provision in all settings."--Page 4 of cover
"Ensuring the full implementation of human rights laws and policies through sexual and reproductive health programmes is fundamental to health and rights. This document provides guidance on the different dimensions of human rights that need to be systematically and comprehensively considered in the rights based provision of sexual and reproductive health services, with a particular focus on contraceptive services and information. The framework applies internationally recognized human rights laws to aspects of health care delivery and provides concrete examples of how rights dimensions must be respected, protected and fulfilled. The principles and standards are indivisible, and must be considered as a complete set in assessing services. In this instance, we apply the framework to the contraceptive services as an illustrative example."--Page 2.
he starting point for this guideline is the point at which a woman has learnt that she is living with HIV and it therefore covers key issues for providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights-related services and support for women living with HIV. As women living with HIV face unique challenges and human rights violations related to their sexuality and reproduction within their families and communities as well as from the health-care institutions where they seek care particular emphasis is placed on the creation of an enabling environment to support more effective health interventions and better health outcomes. This guideline is meant to help countries to more effectively and efficiently plan develop and monitor programmes and services that promote gender equality and human rights and hence are more acceptable and appropriate for women living with HIV taking into account the national and local epidemiological context. It discusses implementation issues that health interventions and service delivery must address to achieve gender equality and support human rights.
These WHO guidelines provide recommendations for programmes as to how they can ensure that human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled, while services are scaled up to reduce unmet need for contraception. Both health data and international human rights laws and treaties were incorporated into the guidance. This guidance is complementary to existing WHO recommendations for sexual and reproductive health programmes, including guidance on family planning, maternal and newborn health, safe abortion, and core competencies for primary health care.
This document is one of two evidence-based cornerstones of the World Health Organization's (WHO) new initiative to develop and implement evidence-based guidelines for family planning. The first cornerstone, the Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use (third edition) published in 2004, provides guidance for who can use contraceptive methods safely. This document, the Selected practice recommendations for contraceptive use (second edition), provides guidance for how to use contraceptive methods safely and effectively once they are deemed to be medically appropriate. The recommendations contained in this document are the product of a process that culminated in an expert Working Group meeting held at the World Health Organization, Geneva, 13-16 April 2004.
This report demonstrates the relationship between sexual health, human rights and the law. Drawing from a review of public health evidence and extensive research into human rights law at international, regional and national levels, the report shows how states in different parts of the world can and do support sexual health through legal and other mechanisms that are consistent with human rights standards and their own human rights obligations.
Self-care interventions, including for sexual and reproductive health and rights, are among the most promising new approaches to improving health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for the users of these interventions. Self-care interventions should be an adjunct to, rather than a replacement for, direct interaction with the health system. These interventions are increasingly being acknowledged in global initiatives, including to advance primary health care (PHC) and universal health coverage (UHC). When they are accessible, available, acceptable, and affordable, quality self-care interventions hold the promise of advancing the attainment of UHC. Building upon the latest WHO recommendations and good practice statements, this implementation guidance includes key considerations to support the introduction and scale-up of self-care interventions in countries. In implementing the global recommendations on self-care interventions for health and well-being, countries will need to adapt them to the local context, considering the economic conditions and the existing health services and facilities. This guidance is intended to assist with that process and requires interaction with all health systems building blocks to ultimately improve national health systems in terms of efficiency, responsiveness, more equitable health outcomes, and social and financial risk protection. This guidance is relevant for all settings and should, therefore, be considered as global guidance.
Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. The scope of self-care as described in this definition includes health promotion; disease prevention and control; self-medication; providing care to dependent persons; seeking hospital/specialist/primary care if necessary; and rehabilitation, including palliative care. It includes a range of self-care modes and approaches. While this is a broad definition that includes many activities, it is important for health policy to recognize the importance of self-care, especially where it intersects with health systems and health professionals. Worldwide, an estimated shortage of 18 million health workers is anticipated by 2030, a record 130 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, and disease outbreaks are a constant global threat. At least 400 million people worldwide lack access to the most essential health services, and every year 100 million people are plunged into poverty because they have to pay for health care out of their own pockets. There is an urgent need to find innovative strategies that go beyond the conventional health sector response. While "self-care" is not a new term or concept, self-care interventions have the potential to increase choice, when they are accessible and affordable, and they can also provide more opportunities for individuals to make informed decisions regarding their health and health care. In humanitarian settings, for example, due to lack of or limited health infrastructure and medical services in the crisis-affected areas, self-care could play an important role to improve health-related outcomes. Self-care also builds upon existing movements, such as task sharing, which are powerful strategies to support health systems.
In this book the authors review initiatives in improving the quality of care for family planning in India and bring them to the broader forum of policy-level discussions. The global Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) framework argues for voluntary rights-based family planning programmes. The rights-based approach builds on the bedrock of quality of care, which means listening to what women want, treating individuals with dignity and respect and ensuring that everyone has access to full information and high quality care. Improving the quality of care in family planning services in a country like India is crucial from individual, national and global considerations. This book critically discusses and evaluates the various interventions undertaken so far and the reasons for success and failure. It also synthesizes current research studies in India, identifies gaps and presents a research agenda to bridge this gap and accelerate progress towards improving quality of care in family planning. It presents a comprehensive framework that underscores the importance of health systems and community environments in creating enabling, motivating and empowering roles for providers and clients. The examples and perspectives presented in this book make a strong case for adoption into policy frameworks and scaling up of quality of care efforts, and identifying research priorities for strengthening the response to family planning. This book greatly contributes towards enhancing the quality of family planning care at the grass-roots level in low resource settings and is of interest to researchers and practitioners of public health, particularly community health, maternal and child health, and social work.
