1. As a member of the Ministry of Health in Kenya Technical Working Group, APHRC contributed to the revision of the 2015 National ASRH Policy by highlighting the need to include pregnant and parenting adolescents. Furthermore, in the Kilifi County, the government leveraged APHRCs data from the Lived Experiences and Pathways to Abortion study, to inform the amendment of the Kilifi County Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) Act, 2019. The amendment process took place in July 2022. Informed by findings from the Safe Choice study findings, the committee working on the revisions agreed to include post abortion care (PAC) as an emergency treatment to help girls and women access PAC during crises (e.g., strikes). There was also debate around the issue of contraceptive use among young people without the consent of the parents and the need to ensure that young people have access to contraception with religious leaders noting that there was no need to provide contraception to children because they are not supposed to be engaging in sex. The APHRC team underscored evidence demonstrating that adolescent girls and boys were engaging in sex. Following the discussions, the committee agreed to adopt Section 16 of the Childrens Act 2022, which provides for rights to healthcare,
including reproductive health.
2. In Sierra Leone, the Abortion Incidence study opened up several opportunities to advance the comprehensive abortion care (CAC) and Post Abortion Care (PAC) conversations in the country. MOH Sierra Leone, Statistics Sierra Leone, and APHRC conducted and launched this study on the incidence of abortion in 2022. From the study recommendations there has been an accelerated progress towards the validation of the National Guidelines on Prevention of Maternal Mortality from Unsafe Abortion and Comprehensive
Abortion Care, a process that was led by the WHO, and to which the APHRC team was invited to. The Abortion Incidence study findings also gave impetus to the Safe Motherhood Bill 2022 debates and strengthened the Ministry of Healths rationale towards an abortion legal reform in the country. In August 2022, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, publicly committed to support the Safe Motherhood Bill during his speech at the 10th Conference on Sexual Reproductive Health held at Freetown. In October 2022, MOH Sierra Leone constituted a TWG comprising of state and nonstate actors to develop a framework to guide the drafting of the Safe Motherhood Bill. Supporting this, APHRC also conducted advocacy, communication, and VCAT training to the nonstate actors in the TWG on the Safe Motherhood Bill.
3. Between 2021- 2022 APHRC and partners conducted a study on the impacts of COVID-19 on SRHR services. The study was conducted in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda. On September 28, 2022, the African Union Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Women in Africa published a statement on access to safe and legal abortion on ACHPR website that included a recommendation from APHRC's Covid19 study. This contributes to the agenda setting towards the implementation of Maputo Protocol's target on access to safe abortion and post abortion care.
4. ISSP and APHRC conducted a study on the lived experiences of pregnant and parenting adolescents and involved Voix de femmes, AMPO and KEOGO (NGOs based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) in data collection and validation. Following this work, these NGOs adopted a proactive approach in service delivery that involved reaching out to pregnant and parenting adolescents instead of waiting for them to reach out them. In July 2022, Voix de Femmes developed an intervention informed by the study on pregnant and parenting
adolescents that involved training and providing materials to pregnant and parenting adolescents to enable them generate income to improve their living conditions. In December 2022, KEOGO convened a public discussion in Ouagadougou on socioeconomic reintegration of pregnant and parenting adolescents informed by the findings of study on the lived experiences of pregnant and parenting adolescents in Burkina Faso.
5. APHRC in collaboration with CHAI and MOH Liberia between 2021 and 2022 conducted a study on the incidence of abortion and severity of complications across the country. The study findings have been used to inform the revision of the Public Health Law. In 2022, the Chief Imam in Liberia made a public statement in support of safe abortion hereby contributing to the debate on the
amendment of the Public Health Law bill. APHRC, CHAI, MOH Liberia, and SALI have contributed to the Public Health Law Bill by also training policy actors on addressing SRHR issues, and community and parliamentary engagement. In June 2022, a parliamentarian in Liberia talked about safe abortion in Parliament and asked for support in passing the Safe Abortion Bill. Following this, Members
of Parliament in Liberia established a committee to review and revise the public health law in Oct 2022.
