THE United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), through the Spotlight Initiative (SI), and in collaboration with the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation and the European Union, launched the Caribbean Observatory on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) on Thursday.

According to a release, the SRHR Observatory contributes to regional cooperation to prevent and respond to family violence in the Caribbean. The observatory will advocate for strengthened policy and programmatic linkages between family violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights, which will improve coverage, access to, and the uptake of both sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services.

It will also provide timely and independent analysis and advocacy for the change of harmful social norms across the Caribbean. The launch of this SRHR Observatory included the participation of Alison Drayton, Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the Caribbean, and Luís Maia, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, the OECS and CARICOM/CARIFORUM.

Presentations were also delivered by Davina Gayle-Williams, SRHR Programme Analyst at UNFPA, Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA), and Eugenia Lopez Uribe, Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

The CFPA will be hosting the SRHR Observatory, utilising its strong regional presence of 12 island Member Associations, six Associate Member Associations in the Caribbean, and four partner Family Planning Associations (FPAs), which are leading SRHR focused civil society organisations in the Caribbean.

The Spotlight Initiative is a global multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. It seeks to ensure that women and girls realise their full potential in a violence-free, gender-responsive and inclusive way.

UNFPA, as the Sexual and reproductive Health and Rights agency of the United Nations, is a critical partner in advancing SRHR, and is committed to continuously providing support to CFPA and all other partners to ensure that the Caribbean Observatory executes its functions effectively during the Spotlight Initiative and beyond, the release concluded.