Purpose
Oxfam Canada (OCA), in collaboration with Oxfam Pilipinas, is seeking an experienced, qualified research consultant (individual or team) to work with an existing arts-based research consultant to assess the impact of capacity strengthening activities for health service providers on enhancing the access of adolescents and young women to sexual and reproductive health services in the Eastern Visayas area of the Philippines.
Background
Oxfam Canada is undertaking a research series over 2021-2024 with the aim to:
- Inform the design of current and future sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) projects through the development of useful methodologies, tools, approaches and lessons learned;
- Support and influence policy and advocacy efforts nationally and internationally;
- Underpin the engagement and external positioning of Oxfam and technical partners as thought leaders on SRHR; and
- Provide internal and external learning on how to implement a comprehensive, feminist,
and rights-based approach to SRHR programming, and address salient research interests that stem from and/or cut across programming contexts.
OCA launched the first phase of research in March 2021, focused on understanding the challenges that health care providers face in providing youth-responsive, gender-transformative, comprehensive SRH services to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and on identifying the most effective ways to work with health service providers and strengthen their abilities in addressing the SRH needs of AGYW. The first phase of research was conducted in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Philippines through a literature review and mixed-method research with an online survey and in-depth interviews with health care providers. The findings and recommendations were shared with country teams and partners from December 2021 to June 2022.
From June 2022 to date, projects partners have been integrating different strategies to integrate the recommendations from phase one in order to contribute to an enhanced access of AGYM to quality and comprehensive SRHR information and services. Supportive supervision, mentoring and training for health care providers, community outreach activities, information, education and communication materials, and peer education curricula have been part of the main strategies implemented.
A second phase of the research series aims to conduct a participatory arts-based research to identify the impact of the implemented strategies of the phase one recommendations, particularly their ultimate goal of improving the access of AGYM to comprehensive SRHR information and services. The research will take place in Sta. Margarita and Victoria in Eastern Visayas where there are trained peer educators and where Adolescent Friendly Health Facilities (AFHF) have already been certified by the Department of Health (DOH) with Jhpiego’s technical assistance and support in the Philippines. Only two health facilities were chosen due to constraints with time, partner availability and budget. Therefore this will not be a representative and generalizable sample.
Please see the Request for Proposal for full details of the consultancy.