Overview

Launched by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in January 2016, the FCI Program of MSH built on a long history of effective evidence-based advocacy and capacity-building by Family Care International (FCI), a leading global advocate for women’s health and rights for three decades.

The FCI Program of MSH engaged in constructive activism, partnering with allies and champions in government to effect positive programmatic and policy change. It spoke out for maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights within key global forums, initiatives, frameworks, and advocacy partnerships. The FCI Program called for universal access to high-quality, culturally respectful health care and worked to increase equity by reaching young people, indigenous groups, and other underserved populations. Linking global-level commitments with country-level action, the FCI Program worked with local partners to hold governments accountable for fulfilling promises to improve women’s and children’s health and rights. It built advocacy skills of civil society partners and networks at the country and community levels. Approaching health issues with a gender-focused, rights-based approach, the FCI Program developed and communicated compelling advocacy messages built on a foundation of evidence.

Our expertise:

• Promotion of skilled pregnancy and childbirth care
• Prevention of and response to gender-based violence and harmful practices
• Adolescent sexual and reproductive health
• Promotion and strengthening of midwifery care
• Budget tracking and advocacy for increased resources for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and adolescent health
• Reproductive and maternal health commodities, including increasing access to emergency contraception and to misoprostol for post-partum hemorrhage
• Intercultural and respectful maternity care, including in indigenous communities
• HIV and AIDS prevention, particularly among adolescent and indigenous communities
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights of people with disabilities