Transforming Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Bolivia

Credit: Plan International

When girls can’t access SRHR, their futures are on hold

Imagine being 15 years old and just finding out you’re pregnant. You’re not married, still in high school, and don’t know where to go for support or who to tell in fear of judgement. Your education and dreams? Put on hold.

For 66 of every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and19 in Bolivia, this isn’t just a possibility – it’s their reality.

Why SRHR Matter

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are about more than just health care. They are about freedom, education and opportunity. When women and girls have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and good information, they are empowered. They can make informed decisions about their own bodies and futures.

What happens when girls are denied SRHR and bodily autonomy?

When SRH services and education are limited, girls pay the heaviest price.

Education is lost. Pregnant girls are often pressured to leave school, and once they drop out, returning becomes a challenge. Without an education, their job opportunities, and thus financial freedom, become limited.

Health is at risk. Adolescent pregnancies are far more dangerous than adult pregnancies. Girls under the age of 19 have higher risks of complications, or even death, during childbirth. Many also lack access to contraception or safe reproductive health services.

Dreams are on hold. Without SRH services, girls lose power over their own lives. Instead of planning for their futures, they are forced to navigate motherhood before they are ready.

How the ARRIBA project transformed lives and communities

A girl’s future shouldn’t be determined by a lack of health care. The Achieving Reproductive Rights for Bolivian Adolescents (ARRIBA) project made a difference by improving access to SRH services and reducing maternal and newborn mortality. It also supported SRHR education and empowered women and girls in Bolivia.

How? This $9.8 million project worked to ensure that women and girls across 12 municipalities in Bolivia could access vital SRH services, support and information.  This work helped them take control of their futures.

Through an adolescent-friendly and culturally sensitive approach, the project also provided health care workers with specialized training and resources. These were designed to better address barriers to adolescent SRH services and maternal and newborn health care.

In addition, the project focused on breaking misconceptions and macho stereotypes through gender equality and violence prevention training and awareness.

“Now we recognize manifestations of macho culture and identify types of violence in the community. I didn’t know how to defend myself from sexism and violence. But these workshops showed me how. We don’t need to be afraid. We need to inform ourselves in order to defend ourselves,” says Adela, a women’s rights activist and community leader.

By the time it ended in 2023, the ARRIBA project had:

The faces of change

One of the biggest ways the ARRIBA project made a difference was through the AIDA (Comprehensive and Differentiated Adolescent Care [Atención Integral de Adolescentes]) methodology in health centres in Batallas and Tomina, in Bolivia’s Chuquisaca region. The AIDA centres in the municipalities of Batallas and Tomina were strengthened through technical support, training, and constant interaction with parents, health care personnel, teachers and municipal authorities. This strengthening created a safe space was created for adolescents, where they could receive guidance, care and information, with a special focus on their needs and without being judged.

Marcela, the doctor in charge of the implementation of the AIDA Centre in Tomina, shared: “The most important challenge I had was to break the myths and beliefs that teenagers had about the AIDA Centre. Now I can say that we did it with the ARRIBA project, we managed to work more closely with teenagers, the spaces that were generated with the Adolescent Networks, the Champions, allowed us to reach them, thus greatly reducing the resistance we had in previous years, gaining their trust and now working hand in hand with them.”

Why SRHR should matter to everyone

SRHR isn’t just a women’s issue – it's a human rights issue. When girls are healthy and empowered, entire communities benefit. They stay in school longer, earn higher incomes, and reinvest in their families and communities.

But change doesn’t happen on its own. Together, we need to ensure that every adolescent girl and woman, both abroad and at home, has access to vital SRH services and health care. Through initiatives like the ARRIBA project, we are helping to build a world where every woman and adolescent girl, regardless of where she is born, has the right to her body, her future and her life.

In partnership with Plan International Canada, Canada worked to support women and girls in Bolivia. Because no one should be denied the right to make decisions about their own body.