In April, the Stand Up for Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) project team, made up of Oxfam staff and implementing partners from Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) convened for the annual project review meeting in Jinja City. 

As the 6.5-year Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded project nears its end, the two-day meeting brought Oxfam staff and implementing teams in Jinja to not only share knowledge and receive feedback on implementation but to also plan for the coming year while recognizing the impact of the project.

In her opening remarks Oxfam Gender Justice Thematic lead Fatia Atugonza invited participants to    showcase what was done, against what we planned to do, and what was achieved in the previous year. 

“We need to reflect on what is changing in our areas of implementation and shift focus from not just figures to the impact of the project”.

In its fourth year, the Stand UP for SRHR project recorded significant policy, systems, and community-level achievements that strengthened access to and uptake of comprehensive, rights based SRHR services, particularly for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), while also improving stakeholder capacity and community ownership.

The project reached a total of 25,804 people with Over 82% of all people reached being under 30 years, demonstrating the project’s strong focus and effectiveness in reaching adolescents and young people, in line with SRHR and youth centered programming objectives.

It also recorded key policy gains through the adoption and completion of key national SRHR frameworks like the approved Post Abortion Care (PAC) Guidelines as an addendum to the Essential Maternal and Newborn Care Clinical Guidelines, and the National Guidelines on Health Education and Life Skills for Out of School Adolescents and Youth (OOSAY) which were also finalized in February 2026.

The two policies will respectively strengthen opportunities for self care and expand access to lifesaving services and enhance national coordination, consistency, and standardization of youth focused health education and life skills programming.

Through the meeting programme teams also highlighted several operational challenges that affected implementation efficiency, including a backlog of planned activities that delayed timely delivery of interventions which impacted reporting accuracy. While these reporting challenges were significant, the introduction of regular review mechanisms has since improved data quality and accountability.

Also speaking during the meeting, Stephen Olupot, the Mbale Regional Manager who also covers the Eastern region, offered insight into the importance of involving leadership at all levels. 

“Coordination at all levels is very critical right from the national, district and sub-county levels, and we need to engage the district leaders in the monitoring visits and the review meetings.” Said Stephen.

Also highlighted through the discussion by Dr Simon Peter Lugoloobi, who coordinates the activities of the Stand Up for SRHR project at RHU, was the importance of documentation to showcase the impact of the project. 

As the project gradually draws to a close, implementing partners reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening service delivery and health systems and will focus on scaling up clinical mentorship and continuous training for health workers and community health workers to improve quality care, while equipping health facilities with essential SRHR commodities such as IUDs and MVA kits. 

Efforts will also expand outreach services to hard-to-reach areas, including island communities, ensuring equitable access, and enhance the integration of facility-based services with community dialogues to promote awareness, uptake, and continuity of care to ensure sustained quality and accessibility of SRHR services