SHESOARS Canada devotes US$200M to advance sexual and reproductive health in Africa

RWANDA— Canada’s signature initiative ‘Strengthening Opportunities in Accessing Reproductive Services’ (SHE SOARS), has announced US$ 200 million for 15 projects in 18 African countries.

In 2019, the Canadian government launched the SHE SOARS signature initiative that would span seven years (2023-2030).

The initiative would be funded under Canada’s US$700 million annual commitment to advance comprehensive SRHR globally.

SHE SOARS focuses on project-level initiatives in three areas: advancing sexual and reproductive health services, particularly in neglected areas, protecting SRHR in fragile contexts, and standing up and advocating for SRHR at all levels to advance comprehensive and country-led SRHR priorities.

SHE SOARS, underscores the Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring that women and girls in all their diversity can decide what to do with their bodies, their lives, and their futures without question with an emphasis on supporting particularly neglected and underfunded areas of SRHR.

The newly revamped SHE SOARS for Africa, according to the Canadian-based International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is being implemented through global, multilateral, and Canadian civil society organizations and is part of Canada’s commitment to Global Health and Rights.

Canada also announced over US$30 million for two new projects that support paid and unpaid care work, to unlock women’s ability to participate more fully in the economy, in education, and in public life.

The funds come days after the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali expressed the need to address unpaid care work which disproportionately affects women more than their male counterparts.

In one of the sessions held at the Women Deliver Conference on balancing access to care and care responsibilities among women healthcare workers, Kathryn Toure, Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office IDRC hinted at Canada releasing the funds.

Toure precisely pointed out that women in healthcare professions have dual caring obligations both at work and at home.

“Women make up over 70 percent of the world’s human health resources in the form of health care professionals, putting them at a significant risk of getting diseases and straining their mental health due to their job in public and private care settings and of those only 25 percent of global health leaders are in the workforce,” Toure said.

Speaking at the same event, the acting division manager, of maternal, child, and community health at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Hassan Sibomana discussed the importance of balancing access to care and care responsibilities among women healthcare workers.

Sibomana reported that evidence showed that health systems were insufficiently responsive to women’s specific health needs and yet, highly dependent on them.

“As providers of care, female health workers face multiple challenges as they seek to improve and sustain their mental and physical health and socioeconomic wellbeing,” Sibomana noted.

A SHE SOARS success story in Kenya, Rwanda & Zambia

Since July 2021, SHE SOARS with partners i.e., Restless Developments, the Youth Coalition, CARE International Canada, and Centre for Reproductive Rights has supported the   Supporting Out of School Adolescent Girls’ Rights and Skills program in Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia.

The program has delivered inclusive, holistic Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR), life skills, and financial literacy programming for out-of-school adolescent girls and boys between 10 and 19 years old.

SHE SOARS is working alongside healthcare providers and key stakeholders in the target communities to provide evidence-based sexual and reproductive health information.

Moreover, the program addresses the root causes of gender-based inequalities, improves health services, and works with young people, particularly girls, to increase decision-making about their lives and their bodies.

The project will directly support nearly 190,000 adolescent girls and over 50,000 adolescent boys ages 10-19 years old to access adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health services and realize their rights.

Over 305,000 women and nearly 80,000 men will also directly benefit from project activities.

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