The Eighth Eastern Africa Reproductive Health Network (EARHN) Coordination Meeting was held in Kigali.
On the theme of “Implementation of the EARHN Strategic Plan 2017-2021, Challenges and Opportunities”, the 8th Eastern Africa Reproductive Health Network (EARHN) coordination meeting was held on July 17 – 18, 2018 at Nobleza Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting was officiated by the Rwanda Minister of Health Hon. Dr. Diane Gashumba. Over 40 participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda representing the respective countries’ ministries of health and civil society attended this meeting.
Major objectives of the meeting were to; share innovative programmatic experiences and good practices that enhance the implementation of the EARHN Strategic Plan; strengthening the institutional leadership and governance of EARHN to implement the Strategic Plan as well as developing country action plans for implementation in 2018 and 2019.
During the meeting, researchers from the Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) programme shared their partial results from their various studies as new evidence for improving maternal and child health, reproductive health/family planning outcomes in the Eastern Africa Region. These were in three thematic areas: community-based interventions; quality of care at the facility level; and human resources for health. In addition, Ethiopia and Rwanda shared their best practices on challenges and opportunities in improving access to FP/RH services and information among the adolescents.
Member countries shared the status of implementation of their respective country advocacy action plans in the context of the EARHN Strategic Plan 2017 – 2021 and a session on successful advocacy for Reproductive Health and Family Planning programmes was conducted using the AFP approach.
Country delegations developed country specific advocacy action plans (anchored on EARHN 2017–2021) for implementation in 2018 and 2019, based on the successful advocacy approaches shared.
