On December 16-17, 2021, the Regional Training Center, coordinated by the Reproductive Health Training Center of the Republic of Moldova, organized the 2nd edition of the Regional Conference “Bringing WHO recommendations on safe abortion and family planning closer to women in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.” The organization of this conference has come at the end of a three-year project focused on improving access to and quality of safe abortion services in the region through the alignment of national safe abortion protocols with the most recent WHO recommendations. The first edition of the Conference took place in 2018, at the start of the project.
The primary objectives of the 2021 Conference included:
- To present and discuss country case studies, with participation of working group coordinators from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Moldova, regarding their experiences updating and implementing national safe abortion protocols.
- To consider pertinent issues, mechanisms for addressing issues, and new opportunities in the field of safe abortion and family planning: updates from partners and colleagues.
- To discuss potential next steps in further improving access to and quality of safe abortion in EECA.
The Conference took place both online via Zoom as well as in person for participants based in Moldova. Overall, there were 131 participants over the two days of the Conference, including representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova, WHO headquarters and the WHO Country Office in Moldova, UNFPA regional and country offices, Gynuity Health Projects, Concept Foundation, the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health, the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, DKT WomanCare Global, and sexual and reproductive health professionals and experts from the 12 countries that came together to form the Regional Reproductive Health and Rights Coalition within the framework of the Conference’s first edition in 2018.
The first and second editions of the Conference, the alignment of countries’ national safe abortion protocols with WHO recommendations, and the subsequent implementation of updated protocols has been supported by the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) as part of the project “Bringing the WHO recommendations on safe abortion closer to women, in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, by supporting the development of national clinical guidelines and protocols on unwanted pregnancy.”
By clicking on the links below, you can access the following 2021 Conference materials: