Project profile — Strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights through Midwifes

• Somalia (100.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (10.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (15.00%)
Family planning (13030) (10.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (50.00%)
• Government And Civil Society, General: Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (15.00%)

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

The project aims to reduce maternal mortality and increase sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for women and adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 49 in Somalia. More specifically, the project works to improve the availability and accessibility of professionally trained and certified midwives who are able to provide quality, rights-based SRHR services to these women and adolescent girls. The project also addresses underlying barriers to women's and adolescent girls’ demand for and use of midwifery services by increasing awareness at community level about midwifery and SRHR. Project activities include: (1) strengthening the capacity of midwifery schools and providing them with essential equipment to train midwives from international standards; (2) updating the national midwifery curriculum to include modules and practice on family planning, women’s rights and SRHR, as well as female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) prevention; (3) upgrading the skills of midwifery tutors to improve the quality of training in alignment with the updated curriculum; (4) strengthening midwifery associations and traditional birth attendants in empowering women and adolescent girls and in providing rights-based SRHR information to communities, including FGM/C, CEFM, SGBV prevention and referral; and (5) providing training to girls’ and boys’ clubs in schools on SRHR in order to increase demand for services, and to identify and refer marginalized adolescent girls and girls to midwifery services. The project expects that the skills of approximately 500 new midwives, 375 in-service midwives and 150 tutors across 15 midwifery schools are upgraded across the country and more than 288,000 pregnant women between the ages of 14 and 49 are reached. Indirectly, the midwives’ and the community outreach aim to benefit 5,761,080 people, including 806,550 adolescent girls and 1,920,359 men and boys.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved availability and accessibility of professionally trained and certified midwives who are able to provide quality, rights-based SRHR services to women and adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 49 in Somalia; and (2) increased use of skilled midwives and reproductive health services by women and adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 49 in Somalia.

Results achieved as of March 2023: (1) 232 students graduated from the midwifery training programs. They returned to their home communities to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Somalia. The project also enrolled a new cohort of 250 students in training in its third year; (2) implemented the new curriculum across 15 midwifery schools with the line ministries, United Nations Population Fund, and Canadian Association of Midwives; (3) developed a zero tolerance for female genital mutilation campaign with midwifery associations; (4) developed a maternal health app to provide information on sexual and reproductive health and rights and safe delivery; (5) reached 3240 women with quality midwifery services and information on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender based violence; and (6) referred 1470 women and girls to facility-based care including safe delivery at hospitals and the community level in emergency cases.

• Proactive disclosure