The Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme: phase two

People with disabilities and other underserved groups often face barriers when using sexual and reproductive healthcare. Their use is shaped not only by individual choice, but also by systems, policies and social attitudes that enable or restrict their access to services.

Addressing the barriers that marginalised people face requires deliberate investment in health services to ensure they are inclusive by design, responsive to diverse needs and accountable to the people they serve. The Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) programme was designed to support this kind of change through coordinated, large-scale action.

During its first phase, which ran from 2018 to 2024, the WISH1 programme supported more than 4.2 million people to voluntarily access family planning services. It also highlighted the importance of addressing long-standing structural barriers that continue to limit equitable access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for marginalised groups, including people with disabilities.

What are the aims of WISH2?

The second phase of the programme, known as WISH2, will run from 2024 to 2029 in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. Sightsavers will be working alongside a consortium of partners, including MSI Reproductive Choices, Options, RAES, Ipas and WILDAF-AO.

The programme will build on the achievements of the first phase (WISH1). It aims to strengthen national health systems and ensure that SRH services are disability-inclusive, rights-based and sustainable, even in fragile and humanitarian settings.

By focusing on people who are most often left behind, including young people, people living in extreme poverty and people with disabilities, it will help build stronger, more equitable health systems that leave no one behind.

Find out more about the first phase of the WISH programme (WISH1)

What is Sightsavers’ role?

We provide technical support on disability inclusion across all six programme countries and implement specific activities directly with national stakeholders, including Ministries of Health and organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) in Mali and Senegal.

• We promote inclusive communication and social behavioural change by helping partners to design, adapt and implement disability-inclusive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) campaigns and community-based initiatives that challenge disability stigma and promote positive attitudes towards SRHR
• We build capacity and improve quality by delivering training for health providers and consortium partners, conducting accessibility audits of public healthcare facilities, and embedding inclusion within quality-assurance and supervision systems
• We support inclusive service delivery and outreach by applying twin-track approaches that improve accessibility within mainstream SRH services while responding to the specific needs of people with disabilities, including in humanitarian and hard-to-reach settings
• We influence policy and systems change by working with governments, OPDs and consortium partners to embed disability inclusion with SRH policies, financing and accountability processes, including through sustained engagement in national and regional policy dialogues, technical input to guidelines, and collaboration with the World Health Organization on advancing health equity for people with disabilities
• We help generate applied research and learning on disability-inclusive SRH, including research on contraceptive autonomy, informed choice and service experiences of women with disabilities, and integrate disability-related learning into programme monitoring, evaluation and adaptation

Contact us

For more information about Sightsavers and the WISH programme in West and Central Africa, email:

Amalie Quevedo
Sightsavers’ technical adviser for inclusive SRHR
[email protected]