Sexual & Reproductive Health

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In Niger, which has one of the highest rates of teenage marriage and pregnancy in the world, PSI is working with the innovative design team at YLabs, under the USAID-funded Transform/PHARE project, to pave positive pathways for trusted sexual and reproductive health information, products and services.

Watch how the Transform/PHARE team created Sarari to increase support for reproductive health in Niger.

Overview

PSI believes all people can and should have control of their sexuality, sexual health and fertility. That this is best achieved when people have greater voice, choice and agency over the processes and services that most affect them. Our mission is clear: every woman and girl—and every man and boy—should have access to the products, information and services they need to plan for the families and lives that they desire. Access to quality-assured contraception and safe abortion where it is legal is a part of that package.

But for too long, consumers in lower- and middle-income countries have faced disproportionate social and structural barriers in making their own reproductive health choices. There are still more than 214 million women and girls who want, but don’t have access to modern contraception, and each year women face 98 million unintended pregnancies. At the current rate, an estimated 470 million women will continue to lack access to sexual and reproductive healthcare in 2030.

Change is in order.

We envision a world in which consumers can move seamlessly through a marketplace with the widest range of options and opportunities available to them in an environment that supports them on the health journeys that shape their lives.

That’s why across the 50+ countries in which we work, PSI’s global goals drive toward ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health services. Our approach is grounded in ensuring that the rights of the consumer are protected and promoted so that everyone has access to quality care and comprehensive information without discrimination of any kind. We know that access to contraception isn’t just about preventing an unplanned pregnancy—it’s about paving pathways out of poverty for a better future for all. Across our sexual and reproductive health programming, we’re committed to getting bold—to reimagine what it takes to put the consumer at the center and, whenever possible, bring healthcare to the front door.

Our Commitments
to Sexual & Reproductive Health

By 2030, PSI, as part of the Self-Care Trailblazer Group, commits to ignite and help build a comprehensive, evidence-based self-care agenda and movement for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Healthcare is being transformed by the development of technologies and evidence that strengthen consumers’ power to take greater control and autonomy. This transformation is particularly impactful for sexual and reproductive rights.

The commitment will focus on:

  1. Growing a strong evidence base for a broad spectrum of self-care interventions, products and behaviors to unlock policy/implementation changes at the global and country level
  2. Catalyzing demand for self-care, including the importance of agency, autonomy and enhanced health literacy to enable informed, responsible healthcare decisions
  3. Strengthening the supply of quality, equitable, accountable self-care products and services, working with all forms of providers to increase evidence-based quality self-care at scale
  4. Strengthening the enabling environment to ensure that policy and regulation support evidence-based quality self-care at scale.

By 2030, PSI pledges to identify, train and deploy a corps of 500 young people from around the world with the skills to co-design and implement adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health programs alongside technical experts. These Youth Fellows will be employed as practitioners in programs within and beyond PSI, working as researchers, analysts, advocates and community-level champions who can counsel teams on how to apply meaningful youth engagement. And, through inter-generational and peer-to-peer mentorship, they will be supported to develop the confidence and skills needed to successfully influence and deliver public health programming.

Learn more.

How we
work

01
Asset 17

Consumer
Led

02
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Market Development

03

Program
Design

04
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Social
Enterprise

The Four Pillars of our Work in
Sexual & Reproductive Health

We shape positive narratives around contraception and safe abortion.
Sex-Repr-Pillar-1
We move quality care closer to the consumers that need it the most.
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We shape sustainable contraceptive markets.
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We innovate financing to better serve consumers and health systems.
New-Sex-Repr-Pillar-2

Our
Impact

In 2018, we aimed to reach consumers with trusted spaces, sources and tools for their sexual and reproductive health--where they are and how they want them. Here’s what we achieved:

9.6 million

people voluntarily chose a modern contraceptive method

14 million

people under the age of 25 reached with contraception

2.24 million

consumers opted for long-acting reversible contraceptives

526 million

male and female condoms distributed

16.2 million

years of protection against unintended pregnancy provided to couples across the world

6.5 million

unintended pregnancies averted

Our Sexual & Reproductive Health Solutions

We work to ensure consumers have reliable access to the full range of reproductive health products and services, from condoms and emergency contraceptives to long-acting reversible contraceptive methods and medical abortion products. We are at the forefront of market shaping and service delivery efforts for the injectable contraceptive DMPA-SC, LNG-IUS (intra-uterine system) and on-demand emergency contraception to expand consumers options for voluntary contraception where, when and how she wants it.

Making choices is a complex process, especially when there are a large number of options. PSI wants to help clients see how different methods will impact their lives, not just how they are administered. Counseling for Choice (C4C) is a PSI initiative that contributes to a positive narrative around the choices clients have. Providers engage each client in a conversation about the things that matter most to her: pregnancy prevention, future pregnancy, privacy, prevention of HIV, changes to periods, and other topics. After matching her with a method that suits her lifestyle and preferred product attributes, providers work with the client on a plan for method use and what to do if she experiences the most common side effects of the method chosen. We believe engaging the client as a partner in the decision process has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about contraceptive counseling and improve the quality of care she receives.

We work with networks of public and private providers at different levels of the health system, including over 12,000 locally managed social franchise clinics in 26 countries, mobile outreach teams, community-based health workers and distribution agents. PSI provides training and ongoing support to providers across a range of reproductive health and related services including contraception, abortion and post-abortion care, gender-based violence screening and referral, cervical cancer screening and HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. Our approach is centered around empathetic, client-centered care, quality assurance and ongoing quality improvement in both counseling and service provision.

PSI works to de-medicalize abortion so that products and information are placed directly in our consumers’ hands; develop sustainable medical abortion and misoprostol markets that maximize access and ensure affordability; and destigmatize abortion providers and society so that supply and demand are unencumbered.

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We are committed to delivering a youth-powered platform, with and for young people, to better understand their lives, needs and experiences and authentically deliver what matters to them most today, allowing us to position contraception in service of their self-expressed desires and dreams. Together, we co-design, implement and evaluate programs with more than 680 young people across the PSI network to ensure they both desire and can access all sexual and reproductive health needs, including access to safe abortion for those who want it.

PSI’s commitment to ethics in youth-powered design recognizes the diversity of youth, ages 10-24 years, and the need for deeper reflection on who adolescents are and the life experiences that often define them. We apply the latest evidence and adaptively implement, to stay nimble to the changing needs of young people and build out our learnings to deepen the adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health evidence base. Our aim is a system that delivers trust and value to the young people we serve.

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In countries where cervical cancer rates are highest, informed access to contraception also remains a critical need. By integrating cervical cancer screening services and preventive treatment and referrals within existing voluntary reproductive health service delivery platforms, PSI is working to better meet women’s health needs across her life cycle and increase the health impact of our sexual and reproductive health interventions. In Mozambique, under the PEER project, PSI is systematically designing, testing and refining integrated reproductive health and cervical cancer service delivery models that can meet consumer needs, while improving health outcomes.

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From HPV vaccine promotion, early detection and treatment of cervical pre-cancers and referral for follow-on care, we support the WHO’s plan for global cervical cancer elimination, designed with national and regional 2030 targets.  We engage consumers, healthcare providers, government and partners across the public and private sectors to move consumers from awareness to screening, diagnosis, treatment and continued management of cervical cancer care. 

See how our cervical cancer prevention program in Trinidad & Tobago, supported through PSI’s Maverick Collective, partnered with the Ministry of Health to pilot new technologies for improved cervical cancer screening and bolstering national efforts to raise awareness of cervical cancer and the need for HPV vaccine and regular screening:

 

Featured Projects

Self-Care Trailblazers Group

Women’s Health Project (WHP)

Transform/PHARE

Tsogolo Langa

Research for Scalable Solutions (R4S)

Support for International Family Planning Organizations (SIFPO2)

Our
Experts

Andrea

Fearneyhough

Director, Safe Abortion Programming

Washington, DC

Pierre

Moon

Project Director, Momentum Private Healthcare Delivery

Washington, DC

Dr. Eva

Lathrop

Global Medical Director

Alison

Malmqvist

Director, Sexual & Reproductive Health

Jennifer

Pope

Vice President, Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV and TB

Dr. Claire

Rothschild

Sr. Research and Learning Advisor, Sexual and Reproductive Health

Abigail

Winskell

PROJECT DIRECTOR, Delivering Innovation in Self-Care

Fifi

Ogbondeminu

A360 Director

Latest
Updates

Discover what's happening at PSI

OUR COMMITMENTS

The Future of Work

With overarching commitments to flexibility in our work, and greater wellbeing for our employees, we want to ensure PSI is positioned for success with a global and holistic view of talent. Under our new “work from (almost) anywhere,” or “WFAA” philosophy, we are making the necessary investments to be an employer of record in more than half of U.S. states, and consider the U.S. as one single labor market for salary purposes. Globally, we recognize the need to compete for talent everywhere; we maintain a talent center in Nairobi and a mini-hub in Abidjan. PSI also already works with our Dutch-based European partner, PSI Europe, and we’re creating a virtual talent center in the UK.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Meaningful Youth Engagement

PSI is firmly committed to the meaningful engagement of young people in our work. As signatories of the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent & Youth Engagement, PSI affirms that young people have a fundamental right to actively and meaningfully engage in all matters that affect their lives. PSI’s commitments aim to serve and partner with diverse young people from 10-24 years, and we have prioritized ethics and integrity in our approach. Read more about our commitments to the three core principles of respect, justice and Do No Harm in the Commitment to Ethics in Youth-Powered Design. And read more about how we are bringing our words to action in our ICPD+25 commitment, Elevating Youth Voices, Building Youth Skills for Health Design.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Zero Tolerance for Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking

PSI works to ensure that its operations and supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking. Read more about this commitment in our policy statement, endorsed by the PSI Board of Directors.

OUR COMMITMENTS

UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT

Since 2017, PSI has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a commitment to align strategies and operations with universal principles of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Read about PSI’s commitment to the UN Global Compact here.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Environmental Sustainability

The health of PSI’s consumers is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. That’s why we’ve joined the Climate Accountability in Development as part of our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Read about our commitment to environmental sustainability.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity

PSI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, protected veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Read our full affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policy here.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Zero Tolerance for Discrimination and Harassment

PSI is committed to establishing and maintaining a work environment that fosters harmonious, productive working relationships and encourages mutual respect among team members. Read our policy against discrimination and harassment here.

PSI is committed to serving all health consumers with respect, and strives for the highest standards of ethical behavior. PSI is dedicated to complying with the letter and spirit of all laws, regulations and contractual obligations to which it is subject, and to ensuring that all funds with which it is entrusted are used to achieve maximum impact on its programs. PSI provides exceptionally strong financial, operational and program management systems to ensure rigorous internal controls are in place to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse and ensure compliance with the highest standards. Essential to this commitment is protecting the safety and well-being of our program consumers, including the most vulnerable, such as women and children. PSI maintains zero tolerance for child abuse, sexual abuse, or exploitative acts or threats by our employees, consultants, volunteers or anyone associated with the delivery of our programs and services, and takes seriously all complaints of misconduct brought to our attention.

OUR FOCUS

Diversity and Inclusion

PSI affirms its commitment to diversity and believes that when people feel respected and included they can be more honest, collaborative and successful. We believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural background or religious beliefs. Read our commitment to diversity and inclusion here. Plus, we’ve signed the CREED Pledge for Racial and Ethnic Equity. Learn more.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Gender Equality

PSI affirms gender equality is a universal human right and the achievement of it is essential to PSI’s mission. Read about our commitment to gender equality here.

Cover

01 #PeoplePowered

02 Breaking Taboos

03 Moving Care Closer to Consumers

04 Innovating on Investments

ICFP Q&A:
Let's Talk About Sex

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