Faculty from AKU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery are set to collaborate with representatives of 38 member organisations from the public and private sector to jointly study and address sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues in Pakistan.
The Reproductive and Sexual Health Consortium (RaSHC) will be led by the AKU School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONAM) and is aimed at empowering women and girls to make informed decisions by promoting the quality of education, research and servic
"As the consortium brings together public and private sectors, it will help us bridge the gap between researchers, practitioners and policy makers and make our research more contextual."
Dr Tazeen Saeed Ali, Chairperson RaSHC and Assistant Dean, Research and Graduate Programmes at SONAM
es in the area of SRH health at the individual, family and community levels.
The initiative comes in the light of recent SRH indicators in Pakistan that have shown minimal signs of improvement despite dedicated efforts by public and private institutions. For example, the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in Pakistan hovers at a meagre 35 per cent, which is among the lowest in the region, according to a recent report published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Pakistan also has the slowest rate of child mortality reduction in Asia, according to UNICEF. The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) remains high at 276 per 100,000 live births while the infant mortality rate is at 74 per 1000 live births. The numbers in rural areas are even more alarming where women are twice as likely to die in childbirth and only a fifth of them receive cost-effective intervention.
The prevalence of HIV in Pakistan is also high with UNAIDS estimating the number of adults and children living with HIV to be over 130,000. Despite this, only one out of every 50 infants born to HIV-positive mothers is tested for HIV after six weeks of birth, according to UNICEF.
Asma Bilal, Country Director, Marie Stopes Society, lauded the initiative during the launch event held at AKU in April.
“For a very long time we have been working in silos, and we continue to do so,” she remarked. “It is about time we worked in a more integrated fashion where the evidence and research generated in the academia is spread into the programme design, planning and execution.”
The members, which include government bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academicians of Pakistan, pledged their commitment to put special emphasis on women’s health and areas such as family planning, maternal and child health, fertility and child-feeding practices.
Dr Tazeen Saeed Ali, Chairperson RaSHC and Assistant Dean, Research and Graduate Programmes at SONAM, said the intention is to bring experts together from all relevant fields and come up with practical solutions.
“The purpose of RaSHC is to provide the key SRH stakeholders in Pakistan a platform to work collaboratively, and successfully gather relevant grants and funding opportunities to be used to initiate SRH programmes and bring innovation in research and service delivery,” she said. “As the consortium brings together public and private sectors, it will help us bridge the gap between researchers, practitioners and policy makers and make our research more contextual.”
A key focus of the consortium’s work will be to enhance the understanding and attitudes towards HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, while also involving males in empowering women and improving SRH outcomes.
Allahdino Ansari, Additional Secretary at the Population Welfare Department in Sindh (PWD) said that he expects that the consortium will work in regions where help is needed the most and assured the consortium of the PWD’s support.
“Through this collaboration, we hope to concentrate our focus more on the lesser privileged and far-off areas including Umerkot, Ghotki district, Jacobabad and others where the need for such initiatives is acute,” he said.
The consortium will also leverage the outcomes of past programmes and evidence-based clinical practices carried out individually by AKU and the member institutes. This cooperation is expected to enhance the knowledge and abilities among educators and health workers, improve accessibility and quality of SRH services, and develop reliable evidence-based strategies for quality interventions in this area.
The objectives laid out for this consortium are aligned closely with Pakistan’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Targets under SDG 3 calls for steps to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services by 2030, and also emphasise the importance of reducing maternal mortality by tackling diseases such as AIDS.
