Canada supports sexual and reproductive health and rights around the world

Finishing school. Finding a job. Supporting a family.

These are goals many people share. But for many women and girls around the world, it can be harder to reach these goals when they do not have access to health care or reliable information.

The choices people make about their sexual and reproductive health can shape their future. These choices can affect whether they stay in school, find a job, support their family or take part in their community.

This is why access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) matters. Access to health services and information helps people stay healthy, plan their future and create new opportunities for themselves and their families. Research from the Guttmacher Institute shows that investing in these services saves lives and helps build healthier communities.

Canada works with organizations around the world to improve access to health services, protect human rights and support equal opportunities for women and girls. Together, these partnerships are helping women and girls build healthier futures, strengthen their communities and make choices about their own lives.

The stories below show how access to care, information and support can make a difference in people’s lives.

Access: Bringing care closer to communities

Access to sexual and reproductive health services saves lives.

• Dr. Celestine Buyibuyi has seen first-hand how conflict can make it harder to get health care. Today, she works with Ipas to help women and girls get care in conflict-affected communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Healing in the heart of conflict: A typical day for Ipas DRC’s Dr. Buyibuyi
• In Nepal’s mountain communities, reaching a health clinic can take hours. Tika works with MSI Reproductive Choices. She travels through mountains and remote areas to bring care to women who live far from a clinic: No mountain is too high: Trekking to provide abortion in Nepal

Choice: Supporting people to shape their futures

When women and girls can make choices about their reproductive health, they are better able to plan for the future.

• In Ghana, Hingis and Sheila say contraception has helped them stay in school and focus on their studies. Both students are working toward the future they want: Meet Hingis and Sheila: Best friends, uni students, and MSI clients
• In coastal Senegal, Binetou helps women deal with the effects of climate change. She says access to contraception helps women plan their futures, support their families and create new opportunities for themselves: Supporting communities on the front line of the climate crisis with reproductive health care

Rights: Protecting people’s right to choose

Women and girls should be able to make decisions about their own bodies without fear or discrimination.

• As a young nurse, Estrela Góia saw the harm caused by unsafe abortions. Today, she works to help more women get the care they need by training health-care providers across Zambezia Province in Mozambique: How this abortion champion is expanding access in Mozambique
• In Kenya, women and young people are sharing their stories to help others learn about their rights. Through training and support, they are speaking up about issues that affect their health and lives: From silence to voices of change: Empowering grassroots SRHR advocates

Leadership: Creating change from within communities

Lasting change happens when communities lead it themselves.

• A years-long effort to end child marriage in Bolivia led to an important change in the law. Former senator Virginia Velasco worked with community groups to help protect girls’ rights: How this Bolivian politician and her allies fought to ban child marriage
• Sandra Chimelera, 22, from Malawi, went from learning about her own rights to speaking on national radio about issues affecting young women and girls. Training helped her speak up for women and girls in her community: Sandra’s voice and power: Shifting the narrative through SRHR advocacy in Malawi

Across the world, people are creating change in their communities. Some are providing health care. Some are sharing information. Others are defending rights or helping young leaders make a difference.

Different stories, different challenges and different communities, but they all point to the same idea: when women and girls thrive, everyone benefits. Families are healthier. Communities are stronger. Countries are better able to grow.

Investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights helps create opportunity, expand choices and build a better future for everyone.