Project profile — Achieving Reproductive Rights for Adolescents, Reducing Maternal and Newborn Mortality

• Bolivia (100.00%)

• Health: COVID-19 control (12264) (93.40%)
• Population Policies/Programmes And Reproductive Health: Population policy and administrative management (13010) (6.60%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant 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 (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The goal of this project is to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of adolescent girls and women, and to reduce maternal and newborn mortality among vulnerable populations in Bolivia. This is to be achieved through a rights-based approach that is adolescent-friendly and culturally-sensitive. The project addresses barriers to adolescents’ demand for reproductive and sexual health services, challenges in the provision of such services and community and institutional level governance and accountability. Plan Canada works with CIES (Bolivian NGO) to implement the project in 12 municipalities in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Potosí. COVID response: As a result of the pandemic-related restrictions, the project adapted many of its activities to remote implementation, allowing work to continue without altering the expected project results and also responding to the new challenges the pandemic places on the exercise of SRHR and gender equality. Most of these activities seek to protect and maximize project outcomes by taking into account additional challenges faced by health and protection authorities in offering services to youth and adolescents in the context of the pandemic.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) enhanced ability of adolescents, women of reproductive age and pregnant women to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and use gender-transformative, culturally-sensitive, and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health services; (2) improved delivery of high quality gender-transformative, adolescent-friendly and culturally-sensitive sexual and reproductive health services to women and adolescent girls and boys; and (3) improved quality of participatory local health governance systems for delivery of evidence-based, culturally-sensitive, adolescent-friendly and gender-transformative SRHR services.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) sensitized 15,904 adolescents (55% women) through Social Behavior Change Communication events; (2) trained and mentored 764 adolescents through the Champions of Change program; (3) facilitated 400 peer-to-peer initiatives with adolescent networks, reaching over 6,500 adolescents; (4) conducted over 24,000 gender-transformative and adolescent-friendly Social Behavior Communication home visits by health personnel and community health workers on sexual and reproductive health and rights; (5) trained 1,722 pregnant women and women of reproductive age on sexual and reproductive rights and protection; (6) trained over 4,300 partners or family members of pregnant women on sexual and reproductive health and rights; (7) trained over 7,000 family and community member (56% women) to promote gender-transformative sexual and reproductive health, rights, and protection; and (8) adapted and equipped 50 health facilities to a wide range of specialized services for adolescents.

• Proactive disclosure