Optimizing the World Health Organization COVID-19 Guidance

In the publication, “Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context” the WHO outlines strategies governments should take to ensure populations retain access to essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care, during and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. This document, developed with the input of international nongovernmental organizations and local civil society actors to support the implementation of the WHO guidance at the country level, recommends concrete policy, programmatic and budgetary decisions to optimize and implement the WHO guidance and other relevant SRH guidelines at the national and subnational levels. As a living document, the recommendations provide a snapshot of the current context. This document is designed to be updated with new evidence and advocacy recommendations by governments, technical experts, civil society and advocates worldwide with the COVID-19 response and through recovery.