The Urban Reproductive Health Initiative in Senegal

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, a multi-country program targeting the urban poor, improves contraceptive choice and increases access to high quality, voluntary family planning. IntraHealth is leading this 5 year, $10 million effort in Senegal with the aim of increasing access to modern family planning methods among Senegal’s urban poor. One third of Senegal’s low-income urban women lack access to modern family planning, contributing to the country’s high maternal and newborn mortality rate.

IntraHealth is working with Senegal’s Ministry of Health and project partners to:

• Develop cost-effective ways to integrate family planning with current maternal and child health programs
• Work with high-volume urban clinics to improve the quality of their family planning services
• Develop, test, and facilitate partnerships between public and private health care providers to increase access to family planning services
• Increase awareness of and support for family planning services through community-based behavior change communication and advocacy among religious leaders
• Enhance Senegal’s supportive national-level policy environment for family planning activities.

As the project yields results, IntraHealth intends to share new evidence, resources, and policy ideas to increase family planning access with Ministries of Health throughout Francophone West Africa.

Contact: Dr. Cheikh Seck, Director
Sacré-Coeur Pyrotechnie, Lot C & E, Dakar
BP 5328 Dakar Fann, Senegal

The Senegal Urban Reproductive Health Initiative is part of the larger, four-country Urban Reproductive Health Initiative. To learn more about the initiative please visit www.urbanreproductivehealth.org