IAWG Training Partnership (TP) Initiative
Purpose
The goal of the IAWG-TP is to support national capacity building to effectively coordinate and deliver quality RH services from the onset of the humanitarian response through to the conducting of effective national planning for and implementing integrated comprehensive RH services during the recovery phase of an emergency. This goal is reached through partnership approaches focusing on delivering quality RH trainings in the most effective and sustainable manner, as follows:
1. Building capacity of national and international partners to improve access to RH services to populations affected by crises
This emphasizes the importance of inter-agency and inter-institutional networking and collaboration, including South-South partnerships, in order to enable in-country capacity building. The focus to date has been on sharing materials, existing IAWG training curricula and best practices among partners. The recipients of training materials are ministries of health and education, national and regional training institutions (such as medical universities, nursing, midwifery and public health schools, and key NGOs) who are adapting them to the local context. Emphasis is given to the integration of reproductive health into national emergency preparedness plans and institutionalization of reproductive health in crises in pre- and in-service training curricula for nurses, midwives, doctors, public health specialists and humanitarian actors. Such institutionalization will help bridge the gap between preparedness, immediate relief, recovery and development.
Furthermore, UNFPA and IPPF developed a regional training of trainers initiative (also called the SPRINT Initiative), aiming to build the capacity of multi-agency country teams from crisis-prone countries and regions on RH emergency preparedness and coordination. The SPRINT commenced in South East Asia and Pacific region in 2008 and has been conducted in Africa and Middle East/North Africa in 2009/2010.
2. Improving quality of RH training for (future) humanitarian workers
Critical in the work of the IAWG-TP is quality control. Quality training not only raises awareness of reproductive health in crisis situations, but also improves emergency preparedness and contributes to the number of skilled health workers and educators.
Quality control is a key objective in all deliverables, including high standards for trainers and training materials. These standards need to be informed by evidence, reproduced by other trainers, accessible to adult learners, translated and adapted. Quality training will also lead to the proper certification of trainees, a process that has to be linked with country and internationally agreed standards.
Through institutional partnerships implementation, research will be conducted to assess the need for and evaluate the impact of the training and contribute to quality control. This will ensure that trainers and training courses are effective and that trainees are competent in their skills, thereby contributing to regional and national ownership of capacity building efforts.
3. Identifying training needs and develop and pilot new RH training models
The identification of gaps in training has set priorities for capacity building activities. Based on this, field tested key modules on reproductive health in crises are being developed as well as sharing of information on new RH technologies for low-resource settings.
One of the outcomes of the IAWG-TP meetings was consensus on development of two-day Refresher Clinical Skills Modules for Community Outreach Trainings. The modules are two-day refresher trainings aiming to update skills of health care providers who work to implement the MISP in humanitarian settings with the help of the supplies in the Inter-agency RH Kits. The five outreach modules are: Standard Precautions; Clinical Management of Rape Survivors; Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA); Vacuum Extraction and Basic Emergency Obstetric Care Signal Functions (EmOC).
The ‘Clinical Management of Rape Survivors’ module has been integrated into organisations’ and universities’ training curricula. Complementary modules have been developed by Inter-agency partners. The Standard Precautions, MVA and Vacuum Extraction modules have been piloted. The EmOC module is under development.
The modules and other IAWG partner training materials can also be integrated into national certification schemes and be used to provide refresher trainings for community health care staff working in remote non-emergency settings, who would otherwise have no access to in-service training.
Challenges
Although significant progress has been made, there are still challenges ahead of the IAWG-TP, particularly in relation to the systematic implementation of the RH standards in emergencies. These challenges include:
- The scarcity of trainers and field workers skilled in the delivery of RH services. Emergency preparedness in reproductive health requires the establishment of a regional and national network of trained and qualified field workers ready to be deployed;
- The difficulty of keeping track of former trainees and tapping into their skills when the needs arise at the onset of a crisis situation at the national or regional level;
- Lack of financial resources to support training institutions and participants to run/attend training courses;
- Need for updating, disseminating and promoting training materials.
IAWG TP Information sheet (ENG / FR)
For more information please contact Wilma Doedens at doedens@unfpa.org
WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR FUNDING.
PLEASE CONTACT WILMA DOEDENS IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.
