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Toolkits
Sexual & Reproductive Health Care In Emergencies Toolkit (SRH)
Ready to Save Lives
in memoriam
This toolkit is dedicated to our beloved friend and colleague, Jennifer Schlecht.
Jenn was the driving force behind this resource and instrumental in advancing family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) preparedness work to meet the global crisis of increasing humanitarian emergencies and ever more people living as refugees and internally displaced. She had a vision to expand shared learning and guidance for preparedness, and thus strengthen SRH response and help achieve FP goals, through this body of work. This effort is in her honor and in hopes of moving her vision forward.
this toolkit
The purpose of the Ready to Save Lives toolkit is to bring together existing learning and guidance as a starting point for stakeholders to begin SRH preparedness work. Within the SRH sector the field of preparedness is relatively new and growing.
More collective effort is required to further evaluate the impact of preparedness efforts and push the field forward. This effort is a first attempt at synthesizing draft guidance for SRH preparedness, and is intended for field testing. The toolkit recognizes the longstanding work of the field of emergency and disaster risk management, and endeavors to bridge that work with the human rights-oriented and people centered field of sexual and reproductive health.
Glossary of Terms
The following term is adopted directly from the ICPD Programme of Action (1994).
A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being (not merely the absence of disease and infirmity) in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes. SRH therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are people’s rights to be informed and have access to safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable contraceptive methods of their choice, as well as other interventions and strategies for fertility regulation that are not against the law. People should also have the right to access appropriate healthcare services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide individuals and couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant.
The following term is adopted directly from the WHO Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology (2020).
The knowledge and capacities developed by governments, response and recovery organizations, communities, and individuals to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from the impacts of likely, imminent, or current disasters. Preparedness action is carried out within the context of disaster risk management and aims to build the capacities needed to efficiently manage all types of emergencies and achieve orderly transitions from response to sustained recovery. Preparedness is based on a sound analysis of disaster risks and good links with early warning systems and includes such activities as contingency planning, the stockpiling of equipment and supplies, the development of arrangements for coordination, evacuation and public information, and associated training and field exercises. These must be supported by formal institutional, legal, and budgetary capacities. The related term “readiness” describes the ability to quickly and appropriately respond when required.
Note: The WHO terminology uses preparedness and readiness interchangeably and this has been adopted in this Toolkit.
The following term is adopted directly from the WHO Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology (2020).
The ability of a system, community, or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.
The following terms are adopted directly from the WHO Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology (2020).
Disaster risk reduction: [activities] aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development.
Disaster risk governance: the system of institutions, mechanisms, policy and legal frameworks and other arrangements to guide, coordinate, and oversee disaster risk reduction and related areas of policy.
Disaster risk management: the application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing disaster risk, and manage residual risk, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster losses.
The following term is adopted directly from the WHO Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology (2020).
A process, phenomenon, or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.
Note: This may include the latent property or the inherent capability of an agent or substance which makes it capable of causing adverse effects to people or the environment under conditions of exposure.
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH)
Preparedness (Emergency)
Resilience
Disaster Risk
Hazard
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