Advantages And Disadvantages Of Integrated Reproductive Services

Disadvantages/ challenges of integrated reproductive health services

Evidences from different countries, particularly the developing countries and the most affected by sexual and reproductive ill, shows that efforts to integrate sexual health care into existing services structures are inhibited by a range of health system issues and challenges ( Church, 2010, Bharat & Mahendra, 2007, WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, IPPF,2008). Thus, Church, 2010 for instance had identified five areas that are experiencing challenges for an affective integrated reproductive health services namely:

• The coordination of sexual and reproductive health programs within health systems in developing countries;

• The management and organization of sexual health programs;

• Human resources issues;

• The role of non-governmental organizations and the private sector; and

• The scale up and financing of integrated sexual and reproductive health programs.

The coordination of sexual and reproductive health programs within health systems in developing countries

 Avoiding duplication and waste of resources once the different programmatic components of SRH may come under the control of different government departments or ministries;

 The lack of appropriate and suitable policy frameworks to support service delivery can compromise providers roles (Bharat & Mahendra,2007);

 Systems that are heavily reliant on external funds may also find that the contents of services are dictated by externally set donor priorities,