In 2020, IPPFWHR commissioned IWORDS Consulting to conduct the evaluation of the community resonance model (CRM) that has been implemented by a local partner organization in two districts of Uganda, Mbale and Tororo. The CRM is part of the community awareness strategy of a project that, through the harm reduction model (HRM), seeks to increase the access of women facing unwanted pregnancies to high-quality information and services to prevent unsafe abortion in Uganda, a legally restricted abortion setting.

The CRM was used to ensure that women and other community members learn about the availability of harm reduction services and beyond it, about their right to information, healthcare, and confidentiality. For this purpose, young peer educators, women leaders, and representatives of women’s groups were involved. They were in charge of carrying out sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) community awareness activities and strengthening the connection between the community and the services through referrals.

The strategy placed special emphasis on serving vulnerable groups, including adolescent women, which became particularly relevant with the COVID-19 outbreak and the increase in unintended pregnancies.

To learn about the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and contribution to impact of the CRM, the IWORDS Consulting team designed a methodology that consisted in the implementation of in-person and virtual focus group discussions and in-depth semi-structured interviews. In all cases, different techniques were used to create safe spaces for addressing sensitive issues. Through these sessions, the team had the opportunity to learn first-hand about the experience and contributions to the project of peer educators, women leaders, representatives of women’s groups, service providers, and other key stakeholders and, through them, the experience of some beneficiaries.

The composition of the team and its diversity allowed most of the sessions to be carried out in the local language! This broke down the linguistic barrier that in other circumstances could have interfered, to a certain extent, with the interpretation of the information.

Based on the qualitative information collected and the data regarding services provided by the health facilities, the team identified the advantages and challenges of directly involving people from the community to produce sustainable changes in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, attitudes, and practices among community members and to increase both social support to women’s right to make autonomous decisions and the demand of confidential services.

IWORDS Consulting extensive experience working in the field of ​​sexual and reproductive health and rights in restrictive contexts allows us to understand the scope of the contribution of the inspiring work of local champions. When community members undergo training and decide to take an active role in passing on gender and age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health information, they help transform attitudes and behaviours, increase knowledge, and reduce stigma, using a context-sensitive approach. 

At the programmatic level, the engagement of community members in this type of initiatives can pose some challenges; the need to generate a permanent mentoring and feedback mechanism, greater support from the monitoring and evaluation team in the field, and the generation of incentives and tools that allow champions to continue with their work in the long term. However, the closeness that these people have with the community and with local leaders (including faith leaders in some specific cases), their knowledge of the language and context, and the trust and credibility they inspire enhance their potential to act as agents of social change.