https://media.iawg.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IARH-kit_7th-edition_FINAL.pdf
Contents
-Introduction, Objectives, Key Points
-Community/Health Post Level (basic care)
-Primary Health Care Facility Level
-Referral/Surgical Obstetric Level
-Contents of the Complementary Commodities, inc. misoprostol
-Range of practical issues
PREFACE
The first reproductive health kits were developed by Marie Stopes International in 1992, specifically for use during the Bosnian crisis, when thousands of women were raped and there was an urgent need for appropriate medical equipment. The Sexuality and Family Planning unit of WHO’s Regional Office for Europe then reviewed and updated these kits for a second phase in Bosnia.
In 1997, unrest in Albania led to the collapse of the health system, and maternity hospitals urgently requested basic surgical equipment to respond to the reproductive health needs of women. A referral/surgical obstetrics kit was then designed by the Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the country, which was intended to be adapted to local situations.
A third version of the Kits was assembled by a number of agencies, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), UNFPA, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Health Organization (WHO), to respond to the refugee crisis in the Great Lakes Region of Africa in 1997.
These experiences led UNFPA to produce a consolidated set of reproductive health kits for use by organizations responding to humanitarian emergencies. These kits are intended to speed up the provision of lifesaving reproductive health services in acute humanitarian settings, such as mass population displacements and natural disasters. The first version of the current Reproductive Health Kits was agreed upon by the members of the Interagency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crisis in June 1997, and became available from June 1998. Further reviews in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2013 and 2019 led to modification of the contents of the Kits, based on suggestions of users, newly identified needs, and new technologies.
The current revision is informed by an in-depth technical review of recent evidence-based treatment updates, as well as by a survey on the use of the Kits, focused on the causes and consequences of over-ordering and waste, logistics and supply chain challenges.
The Interagency Emergency Reproductive Health Kits are complementary to the Interagency Emergency Health Kits (IEHK), the Interagency Newborn Care Supply Kits for Humanitarian Settings and other health kits designed to meet the primary health care needs of people affected by humanitarian emergencies. For an overview of the interagency and agency-specific emergency health kits across humanitarian organisations, see this link of the Pre-Deployment Emergency Kit Information Package.
Users are invited to make comments on this revised version of the IARH Kit. All inputs will be considered for future revisions. Comments and suggestions should be sent to humanitarian-SRHsupplies@unfpa.org.\
SOURCE: https://iawg.net
Why It Matters: 35 million of the
134 million people in need of
humanitarian assistance are
women & girls of reproductive age!