Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116744

Angela R. Heimburger, MPH, International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, 120 Wall Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10005-3905, 212-248-6400, aheimburger@ippfwhr.org

IPPF/WHR and various Member Associations (MAs) have been involved in the promotion, defense and provision of emergency contraception for the last ten years in increasingly greater capacities. However, over the last three years, IPPF/WHR and the MAs of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and have worked hard to successfully strengthen their institutional capacity to integrate EC provision into existing services, increase knowledge about and access to EC, share successful information, advocacy and social marketing strategies and disseminate lessons learned to promote EC at the national and regional levels. In addition, MAs strengthened alliances with a broad range of like-minded organizations in the public and private sectors, including the Latin American Consortium on Emergency Contraception and the Latin American and Caribbean Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (REDLAC).

To disseminate the results and lessons learned from this 30-month project to the larger family and discuss next steps, IPPF/WHR held a region-wide workshop for 32 Member Associations to provide guidance on effective practices and successful integration of EC into sexual and reproductive health service delivery to MAs who have not been involved in the project, and solidify partnerships with other institutions and organizations. Continuation of this program to increase access to EC will rely on South-to-South technical assistance from staff at MAs who developed considerable expertise in the course of the project.

Learning Objectives: