London - Two years since it was officially launched, the contribution of the Reproductive Health Access, Information and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative to MSI’s core objectives are well established.
Opening new doors and fostering dialogue and partnerships with non-traditional reproductive health actors, including humanitarian agencies and policy bodies, means that RAISE is playing an increasingly important role in expanding support for SRH, especially family planning and post abortion care (PAC), both at policy and operational levels.
RAISE increases the capacity of MSI partners and other agencies to provide the full range of SRH services in emergency settings. It also encourages policies and funding that support SRH in emergencies.
“By addressing the SRH needs of refugees and internally displaced women and girls, RAISE directly contributes to MSI’s core objectives of serving the underserved, catalysing change, expanding family planning and safe abortion services and ensuring the highest quality of care,” says Michael Holscher, MSI’s Director of Strategy & External Relations.
RAISE’s financial and technical support - including clinical training at the RAISE Training Centre at Marie Stopes Kenya - has enabled partners to improve their services both in scope and quality. RAISE funding, for example, has enabled Marie Stopes Uganda and other RAISE partners to expand services and networks to new geographic areas.
RAISE has also provided technical and financial support ($50,000 in initial funding) to Marie Stopes Kenya to support its response to the recent political and social violence in the country. Another encouraging development is the dramatic increase of the number of new family planning clients in countries involved in the RAISE Initiative since the completion of the baseline study.
In the wake of the recent conflict between Georgia and the Russian Federation, RAISE was invited by the European Parliamentary Forum to join a fact-finding mission to Georgia, to assess the emergency reproductive health needs of IDP’s in the region.
"RAISE’s work is becoming increasingly known at a variety of different levels, which is reflected in the growing demand for its services," says Holscher, adding,
“This directly enables MSI to leverage funding from donors that are interested in issues such as fragile states and humanitarian emergencies."
To read about RAISE and the fact-finding mission to Georgia, please
click here.