Sexual and reproductive health is a concern that extends from childhood to old age for both men and women. Sexual and reproductive health programs must be tailored to meet individuals' needs and challenges at different stages of life. Adequate education and health care are needed at all ages. Hence, the need to popularize the concept of SRHR through its teaching in health professionals' basic training curricula.

Benin has five public institutions for the training of health professionals. Each of them has autonomous management, with different experiences and histories. Most of these institutions have training curricula in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). However, an important gap that was identified from the evaluation was the inadequate attention to the ‘Rights’ part of SRHR – this was found critical in terms of ensuring that providers can adequately respond to the SRHR needs of all users irrespective of the sensitive nature of SRHR

To fill this gap, the Ministry of Health of Benin, in collaboration with WHO, the Ministry of Higher Education (MES), and the Regional Institute of Public Health (IRSP), started in 2019 a process of strengthening SRHR training in Benin's public health training structures. This process, which will continue in2021, has resulted in an adequate level of commitment and motivation of the training institutions. It includes several steps, among which are the evaluation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights training capacities of the targeted institutions and advocacy for implementing the recommendations resulting from this evaluation. The latter took place during a workshop organized for this purpose from 4th to 6th November 2020 in Bohicon. 

The participants in this workshop represented the targeted training institutions, namely: The Faculty of Health Sciences of Cotonou, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Parakou, The National Medical and Health Institute of Cotonou, The Institute of Training in Nursing and Obstetric Care of Parakou and the School of Medical and Social Training of Parakou. They were accompanied by resource persons from the IRSP, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Higher Education and the WHO in Benin.

The three major components of the Teaching Units (Unité d’enseignement) that were included in the workshop’s proceedings were (i) Definitions of the concept of SRHR (ii) Key recommendations for SRHR training content for each training institution, (iii) Regional course on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

The sessions were also an opportunity for participants to appreciate the main teaching units covered in the regional course on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. 

This meeting served as an opportunity for additional advocacy for strengthening SRHR training and it yielded several positive results. 

Overall, , all the proposed modules were integrated  to varying degrees. Recommendations were also made for further advocacy action:

-    The integration of sexual and reproductive rights teaching units into existing Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) modules 
-    The integration of sexual health education and the pathologies that can result from sexuality into mental health education
-    The reinforcement of practical training courses 
-    The involvement of several specialties that address SRHR, namely gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, urology, public health, etc.
-    The integration of sexual and reproductive rights in SRHR training modules for pharmacy, physiotherapy, social workers, and health care workers.

The participants also proposed teaching content by level of study. Thus, together, they defined the basis for integrating SRHR in basic training modules for health professionals in Benin. 

Finally, each training structure engaged in setting up a consultation team, developing and integrating the modules selected into the existing credits for the different fields.