Symposium on Innovations in Abortion and Postabortion Care

Hammamet, Tunisia
8-9 May, 2017

Gynuity Health Projects, in collaboration with the Tunisian National Family Planning Board (ONFP) and Group Tawhida Ben Cheikh (a regional SRH NGO), hosted a regional symposium in Tunisia with representation from over 15 francophone countries from West and North Africa. This meeting of expert clinicians, advocates, and researchers featured sharing and discussion of new clinical and programmatic evidence and innovations in the provision of early and later medical abortion and post abortion care. The symposium included interactive group work around new international guidelines, including those of the WHO. Country teams worked together to evaluate the potential for task-sharing in their respective settings and put together a work plan of potential regional strategies. Participants had the opportunity to visits local ONFP primary care clinics where a range of reproductive health care services including medical abortion are offered by midwives. This encounter provided a rare opportunity to bring together trailblazers from the region and contributed to the efforts to increase access and availability to high quality MA and PAC services in the region.