Team Europe partners
- European Commission
- Belgium
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Sweden
Coordination for improved impact and efficiency for SRHR under Global Gateway
Important progress has been made in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa, but significant challenges remain. Efforts to improve SRHR is fundamental to health and well-being for all and to enable young people to fulfil their potential, contributing to sustainable social and economic development.
The Team Europe Initiative on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (TEI SRHR) in Africa was launched in Kigali, Rwanda, in December 2022. The TEI SRHR is a key action under the EU-Africa Global Gateway package and the EU Global Health Strategy. It is an umbrella framework that seeks to leverage Team Europe’s combined resources and increase coordination in partnership with African stakeholders to enhance impact and efficiency.
Objectives
The TEI SRHR aims to improve SRHR in Africa, particularly among adolescent girls and young women, with a focus on three specific objectives:
- Increasing the implementation of continental and regional SRHR commitments in the health and education sectors;
- Improving the availability, affordability and acceptability of quality-assured SRH-commodities for all, especially women and girls;
- Strengthening advocacy and accountability efforts that ensure SRHR needs are met.
The TEI SRHR builds on a joint analysis of gaps, needs, and lessons learnt, and prioritises areas where a regional perspective can complement global and country level investments, while aligning to and reinforcing priorities of African partners.
Partnership building on shared priorities
The TEI SRHR relies on partnership between the European Commission, 10 EU Member States (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Sweden), and three African Regional Economic Communities, namely the East African Community (EAC), the West African Health Organization (WAHO) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
SRHR is a shared priority for Africa and Europe and key to reaching Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 5 on health for all and gender equality, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Both African and European governments have committed to fully implement the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) from 1994, commitments that were reaffirmed during the ICPD 25th and 30th anniversaries.
Commitment to SRHR is a strong priority for the African Union and the EAC, SADC and WAHO/ECOWAS, enshrined in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and various regional policy frameworks.
The EU’s commitment to SRHR and gender equality are enshrined in, for example, the European Consensus on Development, the EU Global Health Strategy, the Gender Action Plan III (GAPIII), the Youth Action Plan. The EU remains committed to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and ICPD including to the outcomes of their review conferences. Gender equality is a core value of the EU, a universally recognised human right, and closely interlinked with SRHR. The EU is a global front-runner in promoting gender equality as a key political objective of its external action. Global equality and SRHR are mutually reinforcing. The right of a woman or girl to make autonomous decisions about her own body and reproductive functions is at the core of her basic rights to equality, privacy, and bodily integrity.
Implementation
The TEI SRHR brings together more than 150 regional and country actions funded by Team Europe members of the initiative and implemented by multiple partners, including civil society, development agencies and UN agencies. They all feed into the objectives mentioned above and several of them are implemented in partnership with African national and regional health authorities. Funding from the EU budget notably includes €60 million in new funds for 2023–2027 and EU Member States are expected to make significant new financial commitments in the coming years in line with the above objectives in a coordinated fashion.
Expected results
- Education and health sectors increasingly collaborate to prevent gender-based violence, early and unintended pregnancies, HIV/STI incidence and unsafe abortions
- Country governments increasingly fund and deliver quality SRHR interventions through primary health care within UHC
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights interventions in fragile contexts are strengthened through a nexus approach
- Strengthened regional and national regulatory capacity and environment
- Strengthened procurement and supply chain management including regional manufacturing hubs
- Demand for quality SRH commodities is met
- SRHR data and evidence are increasingly generated, disseminated and used
- Regional coordination is strengthened for more effective advocacy and accountability
