Introduction


ORGANIZERS
Ipas
IHCAR


CONFERENCE
Statement
Agenda
Inaugural speech
Workgroups
Danida report
Venue
Ipas/IHCAR report


COUNTRY REPORTS


REFERENCES


LINKS


SPONSORS

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Expanding Access

Advancing the Roles of Midlevel Providers in
Menstrual Regulation and Elective Abortion Care

2 -6-December 2001

Kwa Maritane Lodge

Pilanesberg National Park


South Africa

Welcome to the first-ever international meeting designed to promote and advance the roles of midlevel health professionals in providing menstrual regulation and elective abortion care.

The unacceptably high numbers of deaths and injuries from unsafe abortion worldwide will not decrease significantly until services for safe legal abortion are much more widely accessible to women in their own communities. Midlevel providers (MLPs) – including midwives, nurses, clinical officers, physician assistants, family welfare visitors and others – are often in the best position to serve women’s needs at every level of the health care system.

The international community has agreed that health systems should take measures to ensure that safe legal abortion care is accessible. In order to do so, a key premise for this conference is that the scope of practice for appropriate midlevel providers should enable them to provide menstrual regulation and elective abortion care. Health systems should further ensure that midlevels are trained in the necessary skills and equipped to provide high quality abortion care.

This conference provides the opportunity for over fifty delegates from fifteen countries to critically assess what is known and what needs to be known to further advance midlevel health professionals as providers of comprehensive, high quality abortion care. Participants will review experiences of MLPs in different countries and determine priorities for future activities and initiatives. At the conclusion of the conference and post-conference workshop, we will initiate action plans to address these priorities in the areas of research, service delivery interventions, and advocacy for policy change.

Ipas and IHCAR have collaborated closely in all phases of preparing for this meeting and look forward to the opportunity to continue our partnership in follow-up activities.

We would like to express our deep gratitude for special financial support provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden.

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