Human Rights and Funding Analysis to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Latin America

The Capstone team worked with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) on two projects, which promote Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Latin America.


In order to facilitate increased NGO understanding of and involvement with human rights mechanisms, the team created two tools for SRHR advocates: 1) A database of international human rights SRHR standards, which organizes soft and hard law, culled from international treaties, treaty bodies, jurisprudence and commission reports, and; 2) Country briefings that analyze recommendations from international human rights bodies and make recommendations to advocates on how they can more effectively engage with these bodies. These tools are to be used by NGOs as they engage in the UN system through the submission of shadow reports, legal challenges and other forms of advocacy.  

Since the 1960s, USAID has been a critical contributor to family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Latin America. However, beginning in the 1990s, USAID began withdrawing funding from many Latin American countries. This “graduation” process has posed a significant challenge to local NGOs providing SRH and FP services that have had to become financially self-sustaining. Our report analyzes the impact of graduation on NGOs, using Colombia and Peru as case studies, and identifies best practices for organizations looking to become sustainable post-graduation. The final report highlights the importance of NGO advocacy in demanding that national governments live up to their human rights obligations to advance SRHR, especially for the most marginalized groups.