Success in sexual and reproductive health and rights advocacy requires strong partnerships among CSOs, policymakers and communities

* Through strategic engagement, advocates can leverage legal frameworks to push for policy reforms and improved access to SRHR services

* And by using the manual, they reaffirm their dedication to advancing reproductive rights and ensuring legal protections for all

* Let’s take action, raise awareness, and drive impactful change — Nyale Institute for Sexual & Reproductive Health Governance

By Duncan Mlanjira

Nyale Institute for Sexual & Reproductive Health Governance emphasises that the success in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy requires strong partnerships among civil society organisations (CSOs), policymakers and communities.

The call was made on Friday at the unveiling of unveiling an Advocasy Manual on legal frameworks governing SRHR to youth-led CSOs based in the Southern Region.

Held at Grace Bandawe Conference Centre in Blantyre — under the theme; ‘The legal basis for the right to access safe and legal abortion under Malawi law’ — the CSOs were engaged to enhance their understanding of the legal frameworks, saying the manual provides essential legal and advocacy tools to strengthen SRHR efforts.

Nyale maintains that through strategic engagement, advocates can leverage legal frameworks to push for policy reforms and improved access to SRHR services — and by using the manual, they reaffirm their “dedication to advancing reproductive rights and ensuring legal protections for all”.

“Let’s take action, raise awareness, and drive impactful change,” says Nyale — thus emphasising that the advocasy on SRHR “requires strong partnerships among CSOs, policymakers and communities”.

The manual, which has seven modules, was developed to strengthen SRHR advocacy in Malawi as it provides legal foundations and practical advocacy strategies as well as supporting the amplification for change with other key stakeholders.

The modules include foundations of SRHR and legal context; understanding SRHR; Malawi’s Constitution and SRHR; key legal instruments & institutions; SRHR advocacy skills & approaches; legal abortion advocacy; and moving forward in SRHR advocacy.

Nyale Institute adds that the manual is important in that SRHR is a fundamental human right and that it bridges legal knowledge and advocacy practice — as well as helping to advocate engagement with government and policy makers effectively.

The manual is targeted for CSOs, youth advocates & peer educators; community health workers & educators and policy makers & government officials.

The key legal frameworks covered include Malawi’s Constitution and Bill of Rights — that guarantees rights of all people, including SRHR and Gender Equality Act (2013); Sections 19 and 20 that outline individuals rights to access reproductive health services and impose obligations on health officers to respect and uphold these rights.

It also covers the Malawi Human Rights Commission  Act, that is mandated to protect and investigate violations of the rights and also the Penal Code, that limits abortions to circumstances where the life of the mother is in danger.

Other essential frameworks include Standards and Guidelines for Post Abortion Care 2020 that emphasise the importance of reducing unsafe abortions by improving access to modern contraceptive methods and providing training to healthcare providers.

They also provide medical practitioners with direction on how to determine when an abortion is necessary for the preservation of the mother’s life and the document also emphasises the importance of respecting women’s rights, including their right to life, health, and access to safe reproductive health services.

Stakeholders in SRHR are asked to support the manual as it provides a structured, legally grounded approach to SRHR advocacy; empowers diverse stakeholders to advocate effectively; strengthens legal literacy & rights-based approaches and supports national and international commitments to SRHR.

According to the law, abortion in one way is illegal but termination of pregnancy is legal — but it goes with it some restrictive conditions, which deny women and girls the liberty to abort unplanned pregnancies that lead them to seek clandestine and unsafe abortion.

NGOs are in the forefront in advocating for SRHR-related laws and policies to keep pushing the Malawi government to enact the Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) Bill in order to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

The Bill was reviewed and completed by Malawi Law Commission and gazetted as a government Bill way back in 2016 and is gathering dust after it was submitted to the Ministry of Health in 2017.

Nyale Executive Director, Godfrey Kangaude said that the workshop that advocates need to impress on legislators the need to enact the TOP Bill, saying the process is delaying because of stigma attached to calls for women’s full bodily autonomy to allow them carry out abortions from unplanned pregnancies.

To impress on the speedy enactment of the TOP into law, most NGOs and other stakeholders use statistics from medical facilities regarding the number of women and girls experiencing complications from unsafe abortions, emphasising that the nation’s abortion law, which was passed in the colonial era in 1930, “is not only out of date but has also utterly failed to lower the number of unsafe abortions”.

While the law on termination of pregnancy is restrictive in its application, the government still has in place post-abortion care in its health facilities.