On January 26, the Comprehensive Abortion Care Technical Working Group (CAC-TWG), in collaboration with Ipas DRC, held its annual meeting.
Ensuring sustainability of the safe abortion ecosystem
The CAC-TWG is a branch of an existing commission within the Ministry of Health. It was created to coordinate all stakeholders and their interventions in the comprehensive abortion care (CAC) field. Among the members of this group are those who raise awareness in the community (young people, PRESICODESA and community leaders) and those who provide services (general practitioners, midwives, nurses and gynecologists).
This group focuses on issues of offering quality services to women, girls and adolescents who need them. This includes regular monitoring of pools of trainers and the dissemination of CAC standards and guidelines, as well as monitoring what is being done in health facilities that have integrated CAC. The ultimate goal is to ensure that women can benefit from quality services.
To achieve this, the group supervises the equipment allocated to health facilities, the providers trained, and the medication supplied, as well as ensuring that young people and community workers provide women, girls and adolescents in the community with the correct information.
The group meets quarterly, and in 2023 held a total of 4 meetings. It was also at one of these meetings that the pool of trainers was officially launched, with the task of training CAC and values clarification and attitude transformation (VCAT) service providers, as well as post-training follow-up.
Investing in high-quality abortion care, changing women’s lives
Meetings organized by this working group provide an opportunity to understand the reality on the ground. During meetings, they share their experiences in the field, focusing on success factors, difficulties encountered, and lessons learned in implementing CAC.
Outreach workers and service providers work hand in hand; one creates demand by referring and orienting, while the other offers quality services. They are, therefore, vital in ensuring that women and girls have accurate information and can benefit from quality services.
The meeting held on January 26 aimed to review their performance over the past year and set the prospects for the current year.
During the meeting, the participants were also briefed on the strategies required to improve the quality of post-abortion care for women.
Experts from the Ministry of Health, civil society, YouthSprint and technical and financial partners all took part.
“It’s a meeting that coordinates stakeholders and their interventions in the area of safe abortion in the country. The aim was to review all activities for 2023 and plan for 2024, but also in terms of training, to see how we can integrate prevention and management of gender-based violence as well as the safe abortion package that already exists,” said Erasme Kidikwadi, Ipas health system advisor.
In addition, participants finalized a joint action plan for the 2024 agenda and plan to organize a dialogue on the sustainability of the safe abortion ecosystem.
In the future, the idea is to create a multi-sectoral CAC-TWG group that brings together representatives from all ministries and the community.
