Advancing women’s reproductive health with small grants in Nigeria

19.04.2010 According to the Guttmacher Institute, of the 760,000 abortions induced annually in Nigeria, 60 percent are unsafe. More than 140,000 women are hospitalized for abortion complications, and up to 34,000 maternal deaths occur annually in Nigeria due to unsafe abortions. These numbers point to a dire need for community-based interventions in support of women’s sexual and reproductive health. Ipas Nigeria, through its Small Grants Mechanism (SGM), is attempting to do just that.

According to Chudi Ene, the grants manager for Ipas Nigeria, the program’s objective is “to provide an immediate response to short-term, current and emerging issues in postabortion care (PAC)/comprehensive abortion care (CAC) and women’s sexual and reproductive rights” through the dissemination of small grants to community partners. Ipas Nigeria aims to actualize this objective through service delivery expansion and creating an enabling environment in which women can exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.

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