Recorded presentation

Ricardo Vernon, PhD, Population Council, Panzacola 62 - 102, Mexico City, 04000, Mexico, (52)(55) 5999-8650, rvernon@popcouncil.org.mx, Erica Palenque, BA, PROCOSI, Av. 20 de Octubre 2164, La Paz, Bolivia, Fernando Gonzales, MD, Population Council, Bolivia, Guachalla 344 - Piso 3, La Paz, Bolivia, and Lizzy Montaño, BA, Coordinadora de la mujer, Av. 20 de octubre 2170, La Paz, Bolivia.

This paper presents the results of a Gender Program that PROCOSI, a network of Bolivian NGOs, implemented to improve the quality of reproductive health care from a gender perspective. As part of this program, 17 organizations assessed the degree to which their policies and service delivery activities were sensitive to gender concerns and developed action plans to improve existing conditions. To evaluate the effects of the program, PROCOSI conducted before and after the interventions a) 2.122 exit interviews of clients, b) 1,925 follow-up interviews in their household, three months after the exit interviews, c) a survey of a sample of the women’s intimate partners (N=530); and d) an analysis of service statistics.

The results showed that:

1) Organizations were able to operationalize a gender perspective. Only about 17% of actions proposed in action plans were not implemented. Several changes in the practices of service providers and an increased satisfaction of clients with services were documented.

2) The unmet need for contraceptive services among non-pregnant women clients decreased by nearly 50% during the project.

3) Modest but important changes were observed in the relationship that clients had with their partners. For example, women were less likely to believe they needed permission from their partners for using contraceptive methods and a greater proportion felt they could refuse sexual intercourse when they did not want to have it.

Learning Objectives:

• To review a methodology to incorporate a gender perspective in reproductive health service delivery and to evaluate it.
• To learn how to construct indices for unmet need of reproductive health services
• To learn a scale to measure partner dynamics
• To be able to describe the effects of improving quality of care from a gender perspective on unmet need for services and partner dynamics of health clinics

Keywords: Gender, Reproductive Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation