Progress and Challenges to Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH): Findings from the Programme on Women’s Empowerment (POWER) Action Research in Gambella

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in collaboration with the International Medical Corps (IMC), with the generous support of the Austrian Development Agency, implemented the Programme on Women’s Empowerment in Sexual and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) Rights (POWER) in refugee and host communities in Gambella Region. POWER was designed to contribute to UN Women’s overall goal: every woman, every child, every adolescent girl everywhere demands her rights to quality SRMNCAH services, particularly in humanitarian settings. This action research aimed to document the progress of the programme’s implementation and lessons learned, identify barriers and challenges to accessing the services, and inform humanitarian partners of the programme’s progress in improving future SRMNCAH services for the refugee and host communities. 

Overall, 64 per cent of respondents reported that they had knowledge of SRMNCAH. About 62 per cent of women and girls and 66 per cent of men and boys had information about SRMNCAH. The most widely available and preferred sources of SRMNCAH information for both women and men were community workers (68.1 per cent); health facilities (57.2 per cent); The main factors that prevented respondents from using the SRMNCAH services were cultural beliefs (53 per cent), husband’s influence (22 per cent) and fear of the community (25 per cent). The use of FP services was mainly decided by husbands (43 per cent), followed by women themselves (35 per cent). Access to antenatal care (ANC) services was mainly decided by husbands (47 per cent), followed by women

themselves (23 per cent). About 33.5 per cent of pregnant women had attended ANC more than four times.