Sunday, 1 December 2019
In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the Higher Population Council (HPC) is conducting a series of workshops on the National Standards for Youth-friendly Reproductive Health Services, targeting family physicians, doctors and midwives in the Ministry of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Directorates[S1] in the southern and northern provinces.

The workshop aims to inform participants of national standards for the provision of youth-friendly reproductive health services, taking into account the sensitivity of local culture and religious values, and to develop mechanisms for applying standards within the institutions concerned.

The workshop addresses topics related to the concept and components of reproductive health, the meaning of youth-friendly reproductive health services in Jordan, the objective of the National Standards document for Youth-friendly reproductive Health Services, beneficiaries of national youth-friendly reproductive health standards , the principles of youth-friendly reproductive health services, and national youth-friendly reproductive health standards.

On Sunday, the workshop on the National Standards for Youth-friendly Reproductive Health Services in the Southern governorates (Karak, Tafileh, Maan and Aqaba) was launched by the senior researcher at the Higher Population Council, Ghaleb Al-Azzeh, on behalf of HPC Secretary-General, Dr. Abla Amawi.

During the workshop, Al-Azzeh reviewed the policy brief of Youth-friendly Reproductive Health Services and alternatives to solutions. Moreover, Dr. Malak Al-Aouri, Director of the Maternal and Child Health Directorate at the Ministry of Health, gave a presentation on the concept and components of reproductive health, while the coordinator of the Reproductive Health Program at HPC, Badee’a Qbelat, gave a detailed presentation of the Standards Document.

The National Standards for Reproductive Health are aimed at establishing a general Framework for delivering proficient, high quality reproductive health services for youth. Moreover, these standards aim at supporting policy makers and health planners in improving the quality of provided health care services in order to be easily accessed by youth, in addition to protecting and improving the quality of their lives.

The importance of these standards, which have been developed within a follow[S2] -up and evaluation mechanism, is to identify the procedures to be followed to implement the standards and measure the extent of achievement. These standards are also comprehensive in that they can be applied in an integrated manner by public and private health centers and civil society organizations. In addition, these standards were established in accordance with the WHO standards.

HPC puts the issues of the youth, who represent 20% of the Jordanian population, on top of the priorities of population and development issues; recognizing the pivotal role played by this category in the demographic transformation and realization and investment of population opportunity, which requires a clear and balanced development equation for planning the future of this category, raising their awareness, strengthen their health behaviors and provide them with necessary health services.

In response to the health needs of youth, HPC has worked according to a national participatory approach to develop a system of youth-friendly reproductive health services that meet their health, social and psychological needs, and is compatible with the local cultural context, laws and religions. Furthermore, Jordan is considered one of the first Arab countries to establish such standards.

These workshops are part of the campaign carried out by HPC to gain support and advocacy since the beginning of this year in order to introduce the national standards for youth-friendly reproductive health services, as the previous workshops targeted the directors of youth centers in all governorates and the directors of the Princess Basma Centers for Human Development. Advocacy campaigns for fostering these standards will also be implemented through health centers during upcoming years. These workshops come in response to the national strategies regarding this matter, including the National Strategy for Youth, particularly with regard to the strategic objective of “raising the level of health awareness among youth and promoting healthy lifestyles”.

These standards dealt with youth empowerment issues, publicity of sexual and reproductive health services, enhancing youth support through the support of the community, providing a suitable sexual and reproductive health services and information package, efficiency of service providers, specifications and characteristics of service delivery sites, equity, justice and non-discrimination, quality and improvement of data and information, and youth participation.