Project Background
According to the assessment on rights based maternal health in East Africa conducted by the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) in 2014 on regional maternal health situation and supported by the statistics provided by World Bank 2014, maternal mortality and morbidity rate continues to remain a serious concern in East Africa. The main causes although may vary are similar in all five Partner States of the EAC. Again, although the countries have implemented a number of interventions to curb the situation, the maternal mortalities are still high. One intervention that has been missing in almost all the countries is the integration of rights-based approaches to programming and policy development which focuses on addressing the underlying causes of maternal mortality. Since the policies and laws at EAC supersedes those of the individual countries, it will be important to integrate the rights based approach into the laws and policies of EAC so that it becomes natural for the countries to adopt them. Currently the EAC is in the process of developing a reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health policy and strategic plan following the expiry of the 2008-2013 strategic plan. It’s important to ensure that the new policy and strategic plan development process and content is rights based.

Moreso, since the EAC integration process is people centred and market driven according to the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, the involvement and participation of the key stakeholders including the civil society and other interest is crucial in not only the policy and strategy development process, but also in the implementation and evaluation process To promote the availability of the Platform, which is designed for Global South CSOs, Phil U and FHI 360 are collaborating with EAHP to engage our networks working in Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Burundi, and Uganda to complete the new course “Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation” from April 16 to May 27, 2018.

Project Goal
To advocate for the integration of Rights Based approach to Maternal Health regional policies, legislation and strategies in East Africa.
Project Primary' Beneficiaries
Are women, girls, children and adolescents in the East African Community. The project scope will be implemented in the five EAC Partner States namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.