Original Research

Assessment of universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Egypt

Doaa Oraby
African Evaluation Journal | Vol 3, No 2 | a147 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i2.147 | © 2015 Doaa Oraby | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 01 May 2015 | Published: 30 September 2015

About the author(s)

Doaa Oraby, Self-employed consultant, Egypt

Abstract

In 2005, a World Health Organization resolution called for health systems to move towards universal coverage, such that everyone would have access to promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health interventions at an affordable cost. Responding to this call, a new target for achieving universal access to reproductive health was integrated within the revised millennium development goals framework. Forty-eight African countries adopted the Maputo Plan of Action committing to the goal of universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Africa by 2015. The aim of this study was to assess Egypt’s commitment to implementing the Maputo Plan of Action. This was achieved through soliciting information relating to the extent of Egypt’s progress towards the achievement of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services. In late 2009, a qualitative study was conducted. It included in-depth interviews with 20 physicians and 10 key informants in addition to 8 focus group discussions with sub-segments of 65 beneficiaries, including married women of reproductive age, married men and youth of both sexes. The study revealed that public sector, non-governmental organisations and private sector organisations delivering sexual and reproductive health services functioned in isolation from each other. Delivered services focused mainly on family planning and maternity care and targeted married women of reproductive age. Scaling up universal access to sexual and reproductive health services requires programmes to expand beyond the maternal and child health delivery model targeted solely at married women with children.


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Crossref Citations

1. “Is the doctor God to punish me?!” An intersectional examination of disrespectful and abusive care during childbirth against single mothers in Tunisia
Nada Amroussia, Alison Hernandez, Carmen Vives-Cases, Isabel Goicolea
Reproductive Health  vol: 14  issue: 1  year: 2017  
doi: 10.1186/s12978-017-0290-9