Earlier this year, Days for Girls International (DfG) – alongside WASH United and Irise Institute East Africa (IIEA) – announced the first installment of our newest project, The Menstrual Health (MH) Country Snapshot reports. These reports aim to provide an in-depth look at MH conditions, resources, policies and legislative opportunities at the country level.
From governments to international nonprofit organizations, stakeholders have expressed their appreciation for the documents, sharing how valuable it has been to have resources that provide a quick understanding of the MH landscape for each country. Once again, it proved that sharing the right resources and information with MH advocates and stakeholders around the world makes all the difference in our work to advance MH rights.
We are now thrilled to announce our second wave of MH Country Snapshots for the following countries:
Burundi (coming soon)
In the first wave of Snapshots, DfG synthesized the high-level research and policy analyses of our numerous organizational partners to provide digestible, applicable overviews of the MH conditions in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi. In this second wave, we repeated the same process, providing insights into the MH landscapes in each country.
Our research yielded further contextualization of the realities of MH in East and Southern Africa:
- For example, a study from our partners at SNV Netherlands found that in Rwanda, 18% of girls and women miss out on school and work because of MH-related factors.
- Meanwhile, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health incorporated MH as a specific policy issue in its revised National Health Policy.
- Zimbabwe is one of the only countries who achieved the target set in the Abuja Declaration by spending 15% of its national budget on MH.
These are just a few highlights, and we are excited to share all of our findings from our continued research in this second wave of Snapshots for MH landscape in East and Southern Africa.
Through our MH Country Snapshots, DfG and our partners hope to continue providing transparency on countries’ MH policies and landscapes. This will foster conversations from grassroots to government policy levels, raising awareness and elevating the need for improved MH policies and practices around the world.
Read through the Snapshots to find out more, and watch for our Snapshot on Burundi, which will be launching at the end of November!
