SRH and HIV/AIDS Linkages at Policies, Programmes and Service ...

AbstractBackgroundThe policy support for strengtheninglinkages between HIV/AIDS and sexualreproductive health in the internationalstage has grown, beginning with theInternational Conference on Populationand Development Programme (ICPD)for Action (UN, 1994). There are nowat least nine different internationalpolicy statements calling for strongerlinkages between HIV/AIDS and sexualand reproductive health fields. Globalstatements such as these strengthen theadvocacy calls for establishing and/orstrengthening the linkages between sexualand reproductive health and HIV/AIDSin terms of policies, funding mechanisms,programmes and services.MethodsThe information included in this report wasobtained through the review of SRH andHIV policies at the national level and, whereapplicable, a review of operational plans andguidelines for programmes and delivery ofservices. The proposed and enacted billsin both Houses of Congress were revisitedto determine the existence of provisionsrelated to sexual and reproductive healthand HIV, to identify initiatives to integratethe two. The director of the Family HealthOffice of the National Center for DiseasePrevention, Department of Health was alsointerviewed. This office is in charge of familyplanning at the Department of Health. Anelectronic search for relevant information onthe internet was also done for supplementalinformation on the topic. The website of theDepartment of Education was checked fordevelopments on the proposed integrationof sexual and reproductive health educationin the curriculum at elementary and highschool levels. Similarly, the PhilHealthwebsite was also checked for circulars onthe provision of service packages related toSRH and HIV. Documents regarding theprovision of SRH and HIV-related servicesin the workplace were also located.ResultsLinkages between HIV and SRH haveonly been recently introduced. Whatcan be said as the earliest law relatingto reproductive health was focused onpopulation management since otherelements of reproductive health were notyet seen as a grouped concern, and HIVwas yet unknown at that time. Based onnew developments, it can be said that at thepolicy level, integration of HIV and SRHprogrammes is just at its very nascent stage.HIV – related strategies are now includedin the proposed bills on reproductive health.IEC campaigns on STIs are also includedin most of the proposed bills.ConclusionDespite numerous legislations passed andstill being proposed aimed at improvingsexual and reproductive health, thePhilippines is still, at its best, in the infancystage. Decades of disagreement betweenthe Catholic Church and the State havepractically led to a standstill in terms ofpromotion of reproductive health.97