Population Council Research that makes a difference

Overview

The Council’s research in Mauritania has focused on a rich variety of topics in both reproductive health and adolescent health. The Council provided technical assistance toward developing a cost-effective, multisectoral initiative to improve the reproductive health of girls and boys aged 10–19, comprising school-, clinic-, and community-based interventions. The Council also contributed to a large-scale initiative to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) with particular emphasis on making the intervention sustainable by reaching out to key stakeholders and building local institutional capacity. Mauritania is one of the countries included in the Council’s campaign to re-integrate the female and male condom into national reproductive health and HIV programs.

Highlights of past and present work

• Identified strategies for re-integrating both the female and male condom into the national reproductive health and HIV and AIDS programs of Mauritania and multiple other West African countries. 
• Developed and tested the feasibility, effectiveness, and cost of a multisectoral model comprising school-, clinic- and community-based interventions to improve the reproductive health of young boys and girls.
• Promoted evidence-based strategies for abandoning the harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with USAID's "Special Initiative on FGM/C" and the Africa Bureau.

Banner photo: © 1991 Lauren Goodsmith, courtesy of Photoshare