Building Partnerships to Empower Women Through Home Self-Sampling for Sexual and Reproductive Tract Infections

This team actively created strong bonds with stakeholders to successfully research the validity and feasibility of rolling out sexual and reproductive health (SRH) self-screening programs. The success of this effort relied on local and external support from all involved, from the field to the policy-making level. This resulted in a novel transdisciplinary approach to integrate surveillance for well-researched infections, such as HIV and human papillomavirus, with less understood and hence neglected diseases, such as female genital schistosomiasis. Active support from local institutions was also crucial. In this chapter we will elaborate on the experience of the first partnership built to integrate several SRH issues in an endemic community in Zambia, with a special emphasis on how the partnership was developed. Through the prism of a case study, we review the lessons learned that could be applied widely across different sectors as a woman-centered approach. Barriers to implementation are also discussed.