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Abstract #151718
Audio (mp3) recordingSuzanne D. Petroni, MS, Global Population and Youth Leadership Program, The Summit Foundation, 2100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 525, Washington, DC 20037, 202-912-2904, spetroni@summitfdn.org and Leslie Kantor, MPH, Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Avenue, B2, New York, NY 10032.
Universal access to reproductive health. In 1994, those five words became the centerpiece of a global consensus document, agreed to by 179 countries at the International Conference on Population and Development. Since that time, much work has occurred to advance the goal of “universal access,” but there is no agreement, thirteen years later, on the specifics of measuring this goal.
The Summit Foundation learned this when it sought to define its programmatic goal of universal access by young people to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services. The Foundation discovered not only that there exists no consensus on the meaning of universal access, but also a dearth of efforts to define access for young people. The fact that data collection for young people's reproductive health is so poor has posed challenges to service providers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Thus, a small foundation found itself at the forefront of an effort to lead the global reproductive health community to consensus about appropriate indicators to evaluate progress toward universal access for youth.
This presentation will discuss the impetus behind the Foundation's efforts to define success, both for itself and with its grantees. It will describe the process by which the Foundation brought experts from academia, NGOs and multilateral institutions to consensus around a definition of and indicators for measuring universal access by young people. Finally, it will present the results of this effort and provide a tool for participants to use in their own work.
Learning Objectives: By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to
- Describe the process by which a small foundation encouraged key institutions to better define and measure success.
- List the main reasons that foundations press grantees for measurable indicators and how this strengthens foundations and programs/services.
- Deploy a newly developed tool to assess countries in regard to access by youth to sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Keywords: Reproductive Health, Adolescents, International
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.
The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA