Empowering Indigenous Adolescents and Women for Equitable Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Guatemala

The project will improve equitable sexual and reproductive health and rights of Indigenous adolescent girls and women in four departments of Guatemala (Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, Quiché and Sololá) by strengthening the delivery of essential sexual and reproductive health services and accountability for results. It will target root causes of gender inequality by addressing gaps in access to gender-and culturally responsive services and sexual and reproductive health rights for Indigenous girls and women. The project’s innovative approach uses a digital health ecosystem integrating smartphones to overcome barriers or distance and time. It creates a network of health personnel and facilities able to provide health care that respects biomedical and Indigenous practices, enhancing sexual and reproductive health rights resources to meet women and adolescent’s demands. Strengthening the digital health ecosystem enables ‘real-time’ learning, communication and coordination between health system decision makers and frontline health workers, traditional practitioners, and patients/participants; directs delivery of health personnel training and education; collection of community-level health and health resource data; and dissemination of data for evidence-based decision-making and advocacy. On the prevention side, the project co-creates digitally enhanced, adolescent-friendly spaces for young people to access sexual and reproductive health services, information and referrals.