Project profile — Strategic Interventions to Build Momentum on SRHR - Response to COVID-19

• Bangladesh (60.00%)
• El Salvador (40.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (20.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (30.00%)
Family planning (13030) (30.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (principal objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project will enable Inter Pares to conduct activities to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in El Salvador and Bangladesh over an 18-month period. The response focuses on strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) knowledge and advocacy, services and support. Local partners, Colectiva Feminista and Nijera Kori, will conduct online campaigns to raise awareness about the increased risk of sexual gender-based violence (SGBV), teenage pregnancies, and marital rape due to the conditions arising from the pandemic, and they will undertake research on the impact of COVID-19 on women, SRHR and the LGTBI+ population. Project activities include:(1) strengthening youth group SRHR knowledge and advocacy through interactive activities, including artistic workshops that will allow them to recognize and defend their sexual and reproductive rights; (2) increasing phone support lines in two new regions in El Salvador to provide women and adolescents with SRHR/SGBV information and counselling; (3) establishing adolescent-friendly spaces in Nijera Kori sub-centres in Bangladesh to allow adolescents to learn and discuss SRHR/SGBV topics, show films, and learn about protecting themselves on social media – all while following COVID-19 health protocols; (4) undertaking an online campaign to raise awareness about the increased risk of SGBV and teenage pregnancies due to the conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic; and (5) completing research and a report on the issue of SGBV and marital rape in Bangladesh. This project expects to reach 2,330 people in Bangladesh and over 4,000 people in El Salvador. An additional 20,000 people will receive SRHR and SGBV violence information through online campaigns, and 49,300 family and community members will benefit indirectly from all of these activities.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) Increased utilization of gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly SRHR services in targeted communities; (2) Improved response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) including early and forced child marriage in targeted communities; and (3) Increased government and civil society responsiveness to the SRHR of women and adolescent girls.

Results achieved as of the end of the COVID-19 project (December 2022) include: (1) established 31 adolescent-friendly spaces in targeted areas in Bangladesh. These spaces contain small libraries and are used to discuss sexual and reproductive health and rights and sexual and gender-based violence topics, and meetings for members of the Sexual Harassment and Child Marriage Prevention committees; (2) increased adolescent awareness of and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services in El Salvador. This is through eight sexual and reproductive health campaigns; (3) Colectiva Feminista, the local partner in El Salvador, established and supported 15 groups of adolescents through interactive activities, including artistic workshops on recognizing and defending sexual and reproductive rights; and (4) assisted 254 women and adolescents on sexual and gender-based violence cases by providing legal aid, psychosocial counselling, and accompaniment over the entire COVID-19 funding period.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: Strategic Interventions to Build Momentum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights