Peer-reviewed article
Autonomy and freedom of choice: A mixed methods analysis of the endorsement of SRHR and its core principles by global agencies.
Peters AJTP, Bijlmakers L ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how seven global agencies incorporate women's autonomy and freedom of choice into their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policies and programmes. Researchers analysed 29 policy documents and 17 programme evaluations from 2013-2020. They found that global SRHR programmes fail to adequately prioritise women's autonomy and choice as core principles, missing opportunities to empower women and girls. The study recommends that donor countries hold these agencies more accountable for implementing SRHR principles effectively.
Key points
- Twenty-nine SRHR policy documents and 17 independent programme evaluations from 2013-2020 were analysed
- Global SRHR programmes fell short of considering women's individual autonomy and choice as core principles
- By ignoring autonomy and choice, programmes missed opportunities for emancipatory empowerment of women and girls
- Seven global agencies studied included five from the UN family and two closely linked organisations
- Donor countries could hold global agencies more accountable for endorsement and application of SRHR core principles
Limitations
The study focuses on policy and programme documents rather than implementation outcomes or beneficiary perspectives. It does not assess actual impact on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive health outcomes or measure the extent to which lack of autonomy focus translates to harm.
Abstract
Based on an adapted version of the conceptual framework used by the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), this study sought to analyse to what extent seven global agencies, five of which belong to the UN family and the other two closely linked, incorporate women's autonomy and freedom of choice in accessing services into their SRHR policies, and how they operationalize these in their global SRHR programmes that target women and adolescent girls. Twenty-nine SRHR-related policy documents published in 2013-2020 and 17 independent evaluations of global SRHR programmes in the same period were analysed. They were found to fall short of considering women's individual autonomy and choice as the two core principles of SRHR. By ignoring autonomy and choice, global SRHR programmes missed the opportunity to incorporate activities that could enhance the emancipatory empowerment of women and girls to improve their sexual and reproductive wellbeing. The study identified concrete aspects on which global agencies, in view of their respective mandates, could have pronounced themselves more explicitly and might have been more effective in implementing SRHR programmes. In light of the international gender equality and women's empowerment discourse this suggests that donor countries could hold global agencies more accountable, bilaterally or jointly, for their SRHR performance, in particular their active endorsement and application of SRHR core principles.