Body&Rights, the e-learning on sexual and reproductive health and rights internationally, developed by Sensoa and the SRHR Working Group of Be-cause Health, the Belgian platform for international health, is fully up-to-date. 

More than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, with one in three living in slums. By 2030, the world is projected to have 43 megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants, most of them in developing regions. While one in eight people currently live in 33 megacities worldwide, close to half of the world’s urban dwellers reside in secondary cities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. These secondary cities, particularly in Africa and Asia, are also expected to grow very fast. Reason enough for Be-cause Health, Belgium’s platform on international health, to take the urban turn, and put the spotlight on how to ensure the right to health in cities. In tandem with the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Sensoa organised two panels that took on the challenges of health service delivery in mega-cities and urban slums. 

With a High-Level Panel on the European Development Days, Belgium raised attention for the unmet needs of adolescents.
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June 6, Brussels. "Unsafe abortion is more accessible then contraceptives”, Young EDD leader Archane Phonsina said, in her testimony of young women’s challenges in the DR Congo. Phonsina lost one of her best friends to an unsafe abortion and is one of the leading voices for adolescents’ access to family planning and safe abortion in her country. “Simply speaking about family planning is still stigmatised and many girls will have at least two unsafe abortions in their lifetime”, she explained. 

How can comprehensive sexuality education and programmes addressing school-related gender-based violence contribute to better sexual and reproductive health and education outcomes? These questions were at the heart of the ‘Two birds, one stone’ Panel, at the Educaid-Because Health conference “Health and Education: Stronger Together” at the Egmont Palace, on May 17th, co-organised by Sensoa.  

On 17 May 2018, the Belgian platforms Be-cause health and Educaid.be jointly organise an international conference on the intersection between health and education in international cooperation at the Egmont Palace, Brussels.

How to ensure medicines of good quality and much needed reproductive health supplies? On November 8, the Belgian development cooperation and Be-cause health, the Belgian platform on international health, organised a seminar on access to quality medicines and supplies for sexual reproductive health and rights. Some key take aways. 

Together with other members of the Be Cause Health Working Group on SRHR, Sensoa developed three information sheets and infographics on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) with a particular focus on young people, gender and the linkages between HIV and SRHR.

These info sheets give an overview of the latest facts and figures and contain a number of guidelines for Belgian development stakeholders. The info sheets should contribute to a better knowledge and understanding among Belgian development stakeholders such as diplomats, Belgian Development Agency employees and representatives of NGOs as well as identify needs and good practices better. With this initiative, the Working group on SRHR aims to encourage Belgian development stakeholders to dedicate more attention to young people, gender and the links between HIV and SRHR in development programmes and policies. 

Body & Rights, the e-tutorial developed by Sensoa the expertise centre for sexual health and member association of IPPF in Belgium and commissioned by the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Be-cause Health, the Belgian platform for international health is now available in English.