Women's Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership in South Asia

From Wikigender.org

The Women's Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) is the fulfillment of a vision shared by the Asia Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and its partners to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda through advocacy partnerships across South Asia. WHRAP brings together NGO partners that are committed to strengthening civil society capacity to effectively advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), especially maternal health and young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights at local, national and regional levels.

Regional Focus and Partners

Currently implemented in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, this initiative is eventually planned to cover the Asia-Pacific region. WHRAP’s partners in South Asia are the Bangladesh Women’s Health Coalition (BWHC) and Narippokho in Bangladesh; Beyond Beijing Committee (BBC) in Nepal; Centre for Health Education,Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA) and SAHAYOG in India; and Shirkat Gah in Pakistan.

The six country partners, together with the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and the Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) have teamed up to build and carry out WHRAP. The designing of WHRAP was a collaborative effort between all of these partners. As regional partner, ARROW coordinates overall activities, as well as regional and international advocacy. WHRAP is funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

Work on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

WHRAP is successfully generating a synergistic process, whereby data collection, awareness raising, capacity building and strategic planning for advocacy by NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) at the local and national levels, coupled together with evidence-based and strategically planned advocacy at the regional level, is creating a dual-sourced pressure on the state. It is envisioned that this double pressure on the state, calling for improved policy formulation, effective implementation of reproductive health policies, and provision of quality, affordable and accessible services, will lead to improved sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls in South Asia.

By supporting NGO and CBO partners with appropriate capacity building activities, WHRAP aims to facilitate greater awareness of the right to health, women's health issues, and government commitments, policies and responsibilities, while transferring to NGO partners a variety of skills and tools necessary for carrying out effective and strategic advocacy. In this way, the civil society actors involved will gain confidence to raise and defend issues affecting women and marginalised groups, and will have a better understanding of how to mobilise more effectively for change, especially regarding maternal health and young people's sexual and reproductive health.

WHRAP is currently in its second Phase, which will end in June 2010.