Project profile — Safe Abortion, Contraception and Family Planning in Ethiopia

This project aims to empower Ethiopian adolescent girls, with a focus on married adolescent girls and girls in hard-to-reach rural areas, to make independent and informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. The project seeks to reduce unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. It supports women and girls in rural Ethiopia, and their partners. While the target population is rural married girls aged 15 to 19 and young women aged 20 to 24, this project expands SRHR information and services to all women of reproductive age, aiming to reach 500,000 adolescent girls, young women, husbands, and members of their community; of which 150,000 expect to receive family planning, post-abortion care , or safe abortion care services. Project activities include: (1) providing services to increase the knowledge and awareness of adolescent girls and their communities on their sexual and reproductive health and increase the accessibility and quality of sexual and reproductive health services; (2) delivering comprehensive family planning, and safe abortion and post-abortion care services through mobile outreach clinics; and (3) providing training and job-embedded support to health extension workers to increase the availability and quality of sexual and reproductive health services provided by public institutions.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased capacity of adolescent girls to exercise agency over their SRHR in targeted communities; (2) improved attitudes and practices among family and community members towards the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls; (3) increased access to and use of high-quality family planning, safe abortion and post-abortion care services; and (4) improved quality and monitoring of family planning, safe abortion and post-abortion care service outreach with best practices disseminated to the sector.

Results achieved as of September 2023 include: (1) 11,636 health extension workers trained and supported to provide family planning services; (2) 217,293 family planning and safe abortion services provided to women and girls in targeted regions through dedicated outreach teams; (3) 242 dedicated spaces created for women and girls to discuss adolescente and sexual rights and health and rights topics; (4) identified social and gender norms that inhibit adolescent girls and conducted change activities with 910 men, community leaders, and the broader community; and (5) established follow-up and referral pathways to ensure a continuum of care.