Capacity asessment of humanitarian organizations to implement the minimum initial service package and comprehensive reproductive health: Global review

Sexual Reproductive Health is recognized as a lifesaving intervention and therefore a priority action in humanitarian response. Despite increased efforts over the last decade to build technical expertise, collaborate and institutionalize reproductive health, there is little information on how that has translated to programming at the field level. Furthermore, there have been a number of important developments in aid architecture: a shift toward country ownership and empowerment as well as greater attention to disaster risk reduction (DRR), building national resilience and emergency preparedness. In order to identify gaps and build evidence on RH interventions for humanitarian settings, the Interagency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Emergencies (IAWG) has embarked on a global review to inform programming, decision making and advocacy. An assessment of governmental and non-governmental institutional capacity to deliver RH in humanitarian settings aims to address a lack of knowledge about the extent of institutional capacity and commitment to RH and is one component of the global review. The assessment tool uses an organizational development approach to look at elements such as: conceptual framework, accountability mechanisms, delivery strategy, structures and procedures, individual skills, abilities and competencies, and material resources. A pre-tested online questionnaire is distributed to relevant representatives of crisis-affected government agencies, international organizations including the United Nations agencies, and international and local NGOs. The study findings will provide a mapping of promising practices, opportunities and gaps in relation to the capacity of governmental and non-governmental institutions to deliver reproductive health along the emergency to development continuum.