USAID supports lifesaving sexual and reproductive health and protection from GBV for women and girls in the Far North Region

UNFPA Cameroon and partners review progress in the implementation of the BHA/USAID-funded project that provides lifesaving GBV and SRH services in underserved areas of the Far-North Region of Cameroon.

Since July 2023, UNFPA and its partners have been providing lifesaving sexual and reproductive health and protection from gender-based violence to internally-displaced persons and conflict-affected communities, in 8 hardest-to-reach health districts of the Far-North Region of Cameroon, for the benefit of the over 102,000 beneficiaries, especially women and girls.

The activities combine GBV in Emergencies Minimum Standards and the Minimum Initial Service Package for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Emergencies, linking with essential integrated primary health care for referral. Key activities are the deployment of midwives and Emergency Inter-Agency Reproductive Health Kits in 8 health districts, organization of mobile clinics, the reinforcement of Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care, the provision of survivor-centered care for gender-based violence and psychosocial support activities in women and girls’ safe spaces.

As of the end of October 2023, midwives deployed by UNFPA in the project sites have helped assist deliveries in health facilities. In October 2023 alone, at the Mozogo Health Centre, 90 deliveries were registered with the assistance of the UNFPA-deployed midwife. Meanwhile, in all project locations in Logone-and-Chari (Mada and Fotokol health districts), Mayo Danay (Vele and Guere health districts), Mayo Kani (Guidiguis and Mouvoudaye health districts) and Mayo Tsanga (Koza and Mozogo health districts), sensitization sessions are underway in beneficiary communities, involving social and community workers whose capacities were strengthened, mid-October, on GBV referral and case management, prior to their deployment in the field. The ongoing awareness-raising sessions are in prelude to mobile clinics and other outreach activities.

Performance review is a key element of monitoring and evaluation for result-based management implementation of humanitarian funding and to adjust interventions to targets.

UNFPA did a first all-partners review meeting in mid-October, bringing together stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project, funded by the Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs of the United States Agency for International Development (BHA-USAID), and implemented by UNFPA through local partners namely women-led Organizations ALDEPA and ALVF-EN, and the Far North Regional Delegation of Public Health.