Capacity Building

Capacity Building

SRHM enhances the capacity of SRHR practitioners to produce and use multidisciplinary, rights-based evidence and analysis that links to policy and practice, by publishing their work in the journal and other SRHM platforms.

SRHM addresses imbalances in research publication internationally, by giving attention to younger and new researchers, practitioners and advocates who have less experience in academic writing, and those from low- and middle-income countries.

Mentoring

One of the most important aspects of SRHM’s editorial policy is to provide support to authors whose papers have valuable and cutting edge information to share but which need editing and revision to reach the standard required for peer review publication. This often consists of giving detailed suggestions on how to improve a paper prior to peer review. Following review, the editor offers additional detailed comments that focus on the language, structure and/or organisation of a paper as well as content. After finalisation by the authors and acceptance, detailed copy editing is carried out. This mentoring policy has served to support a large pool of authors and it has been particularly important for authors from Global South countries.

SOUTH ASIA MENTORING PROGRAMME

To help strengthen the rights- and evidence-based knowledge creation skills of researchers, practitioners, advocates in South Asia, we coordinated a mentoring programme from September 2020 to December 2021. After a competitive selection process, we invited nine mentees who were mentored by leading experts in SRHR from the region. Mentees received training, support and mentoring on analysis, research and writing, with a rights- and evidence-based perspective. The programme also offered the opportunity for mentees to publish their research in the South Asia regional issue of SRHM (subject to peer review and editorial approvals).

At the end of the programme, we conducted an evaluation which showed that the programme has been regarded as a unique capacity building opportunity for researchers, advocates, and human rights lawyers who belong to or are working with marginalized communities. Further, the introduction to rights-based knowledge creation and the collaborations across the region were listed as the top strengths of the programme.

FRANCOPHONE AFRICA MENTORING PROGRAMME

In 2021, the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie CERRHUD, Benin, the Association Ensemble pour les Droits et Santé Sexuelle et de la Reproduction (EDSSR), Morocco and SRHM jointly applied and successfully received a grant from Amplify Change for a regional mentoring programme with bilingual papers to be published in a dedicated SRHM francophone journal issue. This programme, which launched in early 2022, is led by CERRHUD, with a strong collaboration from SRHM and includes the establishment of a mentoring programme with mentees and mentors from five francophone Africa countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Morocco and Tunisia. It provides a unique opportunity for young scholars and other SRHR actors to be introduced to rights-based knowledge creation and writing, and it also bring together senior SRHR professionals who are dedicated to discussing and debating the relevance of rights-based research from the local perspective and jointly developing new ways of capacity building and networking for a multidisciplinary SRHR audience.

Training