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Powerful
Partnerships
The
“Stronger Voices” initiative, launched
with generous and visionary funding from the UN
Foundation www.unfoundation.org,
pulls together the complementary strengths of
four major UN agencies. Through participatory
planning activities and further experimentation,
a common vision is emerging that builds on the
comparative advantages of these partners, facilitating
coordinated support to programme countries.
UNFPA,
The United Nations Population Fund,
the lead agency, brings a wealth of experience
to the initiative,
particularly in its capacity to promote the reproductive
rights of women, men, and adolescents through
more than three decades of support for reproductive
health programmes. Many UNFPA-supported
projects emphasize women's
empowerment and their participation in
the planning, implementation, and monitoring
of reproductive
health services. In addition, UNFPA has actively
provided technical support, equipment, and
training
to health care providers to improve service quality.
ILO
through its "Strategies
and Tools against Social Exclusion and Poverty"
(ILO/STEP) Programme, has been contributing to
the project its extensive experience in expanding
social protection to excluded groups. It has
promoted a deeper understanding and use of micro-insurances
as an innovative mechanism enabling disadvantaged
groups to access health services and to influence
their quality.
UNICEF
at the country level offers expertise in strengthening
health services through different forms of community
participation, including co-management of health
facilities. Many UNICEF-supported projects enlist
the active participation of adolescent girls to
promote informed choices and better health.
WHO's
Department of Reproductive Health and Research
(RHR) is noted for its capacity to develop
and disseminate technical standards for sexual
and reproductive health services. WHO/RHR will
contribute its experience in assisting countries
in strategic planning, operations research, and
scaling up of interventions to improve the quality
of reproductive health care. In addition, WHO
will support linkages to its ongoing work in
improving
the performance of health care systems. .
At
the operational level, many more organizations
are involved, from governments to grass-roots
community groups. Indeed, forming powerful
partnerships
among existing organizations -- especially between
health care providers and groups of clients
--
is a central strategy of the initiative. |
