Introduction

In today’s world Reproductive Health (RH) enjoys the status of being the key strategy for achieving poverty alleviation and social development targets like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In Pakistan, regrettably, RH remains a marginalized field within the health and development debate. The little discourse that exists around the subject is not only fragmented but also lacks coherence and strength. While there are many actors involved, there are unfortunately no leaders. RH in Pakistan, is a cause without a champion.  

LEAD Pakistan with the financial assistance of David & Lucile Packard Foundation has launched a unique  3 year long project called “Our World”, which aims to cultivate leaders, ambassadors and champions of RH. This project will create a cross-sectoral network of women of renown and influence, respected for their position and achievement, with demonstrated contribution to social development goals, to raise the profile of RH within the broader social development sector.  These influential leaders will unite under one platform to raise awareness and mobilise support for RH issues.


Objectives

  • To create a cross-sectoral & gender balanced network of influential leaders;

  • To engage them in using their positions and commitments to meeting RH goals;

  • To develop an innovative range of communication strategies to raise the profile of RH;

  • To encourage public policy engagement for influencing policy decisions on and budget allocations to RH;

  • To help Pakistan meet its MDG commitments vis a vis RH.

Our Message

 
“Our World” is about creating women network of influential women leaders who can use their influence to create awareness of reproductive health issues, challenges, problems and solutions.

We want women from all over Pakistan to unite and to raise their voices to increase awareness of RH issues, to mobilize support, to create dialogue amongst women of their own communities, so that there is widespread discussion not only at the policy level but at the community level as well.

We need to invest in our future, to connect ourselves with one another and dedicate our selves to improve reproductive health for women and girls of this generation and the next.

 

Outcomes

By the end of three years some of the key outcomes we hope to have achieved is to have sensitised a cross-sectoral network of women leaders to the issues of RH and motivated them to lead change within their spheres of influence This network will have been instrumental in reaching out to over 1000 different stakeholders, including high-level decision makers, to pledge support for RH. The network will have been sensitised through a series of activities including exposure visits to communities and RH project sites in turn will contribute to the development of publications such as discussion papers, research papers, and policy briefs and will also initiate their own creative communications and public policy engagement activities.

We expect a “policy change” impact so that RH has a higher profile in the development sector, and it can act as a stepping stone to achieving MDG’s.

(Last updated: January 10, 2012)


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