Components and Attributes

Key Components

CHANGE’s research indicates three essential components of sexual and reproductive health care: family planning, sexual health, and maternal health. When offered as a comprehensive program in one location or through seamless referral processes, these services can be the most effective method for preventing HIV/AIDS and other STIs, reducing maternal mortality and long-term pregnancy-related injuries, and maintaining healthy families.

Key Attributes

Continuum of care

Health practitioners should understand and be equipped to provide individuals with long-term care.

Life cycle approach

Practitioners must understand, and accept without judgment, that family planning and maternal health are not mutually exclusive. The same individual may seek both services at different points in her life.

Rights-based

Successful programs are based on human rights, and respect the dignity, autonomy, and agency of a diverse client base.

User-based integration

To effectively integrate sexual and reproductive health care services, programs must be designed to meet the needs of the end-user. Services need to be available consistently and simultaneously, when and where the beneficiary needs them.

Community involvement

Sexual and reproductive health programs should be based on the expressed needs and wants of the communities they serve, are consistently monitored and evaluated based on community feedback, and address both the clinical and contextual aspects of health care, including gender-based violence against women, genital cutting, and early marriage.

Related Publications

The U.S. Global Health Initiative and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Integration
Read our new publication on integration, the Global Health Initiative, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.
What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.
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Fact Sheet: Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011
The Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011 provides that the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act cannot impose eligibility restrictions on international recipients of U.S. aid that would be illegal if imposed nationally. Would constitute a legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy, also called the Global Gag Rule.
Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women’s Health
Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women's Health, summarizes U.S. support for female condoms, identifies barriers, and offers concrete recommendations for improving U.S. efforts to increase access and availability of female condoms.
Fact Sheet: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act
The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319) establishes U.S. policy and authorizes assistance to support universal access to sexual and reproductive health care in developing countries, including contraception and safe abortion.
Policy Recommendations: Married Women and HIV: Comprehensive Prevention
In the absence of community-based efforts to alter the social structures that promote infidelity, public health programs which aim to reduce married women’s risk by telling men to be faithful will not succeed.
Research Summary: Marital Sex and the HIV Risk for Women Worldwide
Globally, women’s risk of contracting HIV is heightened if they are married, largely due to men’s extramarital sexual relationships. Despite this clear risk, current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV fall far short of protecting married women.
Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Ethiopia
On July 5-9, 2010, three U.S. state legislators traveled to Ethiopia to better understand the role of U.S. foreign assistance aimed at improving the quality of reproductive health care. This report documents that trip and makes recommendations for improving effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in Ethiopia.