Effectiveness of ARCHES in Improving Reproductive Autonomy in Humanitarian Settings

The Addressing Reproductive Coercion in Health Settings (ARCHES) intervention is a single counseling session that is designed to address reproductive coercion (RC) and connect clients with available intimate partner violence (IPV) services. Adaptation of ARCHES for use with Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN) seeking menstrual regulation (MR), postabortion care (PAC), or family planning (FP) services in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh resulted in:

• Increased self-efficacy to use FP in the face of RC
• Increased self-efficacy to use IPV support services
• Attitudes less accepting of RC

The ARCHES intervention was implemented with high fidelity and resulted in improvements in attitudes and self-efficacy, which are important outcomes on the pathway to reproductive autonomy. Scale-up of ARCHES in camp facilities providing MR, PAC and FP services in Cox’s Bazar district should be considered.

The brief contains details on the methodology and results of the intervention.