HWC- SRHR in Palestine 2016-2020

The main goal of the development intervention as stated by Health Work Committees (HWC) in their application and logical framework is 'to contribute to the promotion of [the status] of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among the Palestinian society.' The overall objective of the intervention is to 'enhance indictors related to the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents, men and women, by increasing access to information and services related to SRHR.' The overall objective of the program is broken down into five specific objectives that are aimed to be reached through a set of activities and outputs. Some of the objectives can be more easily achieved than others, whereby others are more difficult to track and monitor- not to mention that any real difference in behavior and attitude is a process that naturally requires time. The HWC assume an active role in a myriad of coalitions such as the Palestinian Network for Nongovernmental Organizations (PNGO), the Civil Coalition to Defend Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, the NGO Forum for Combating Violence Against Women, the Arab Women Network, along with other active networks in Palestine. Additionally, HWC attends the health sector working group and in 2016 was closely involved in the development of the National Policy Agenda. HWC aligns its work with the MoH in terms of coverage of services and accessing areas that are beyond the reach of the Palestinian Authority, i.e. East Jerusalem and Area C. The partnership between HWC and Muntada is symbiotic, whereby Muntada is expected to learn from the organizational and managerial assets of HWC and to expand its operations, and HWC is expected to learn from the specialized expertise of Muntada on comprehensive sexuality education. At the end of the intervention, engagement of men and boys on issues related to SRHR will be enhanced in the areas of intervention. The quality of the SRHR services that HWC offers will be more inclusive (integrate dealing with people with disabilities), and in selected communities, sexuality knowledge as a human right will be promoted through raising awareness on SRHR. The last specific objective set out by HWC states that research studies in the fields of sexual and reprodutive health on youth and menopause will be developed. While the idea of documenting experiences and generating lessons learnt is important, developing a research study requires having a dedicated team that has the capacity to collect, analyze, and disseminate data. Therefore, it is overly ambitious to have three research studies available by the end of the program period. This issue will be brought up as a dialogue issue with the cooperation partner. Sweden's assessment is that the results framework is realistic, but contains some elements that are overly ambitious and merit a discussion. The lay out of the framework in terms of monitoring the results is confusing and is backed up by too many activities. A revised results framework is expected by the end of the first year once a baseline study has been done and the indicators have been refined.