
Irene de Vries
- Department
- SRHR
- Title
- Advisor
- Phone
- 0031 20 5688590
- i.d.vries@kit.nl
As a medical doctor and social scientist I like to work in the field where both skills meet to improve health for all. After my degrees, I worked several years as a medical doctor in the Netherlands, the Caribbean and Zambia, mainly in the fields of obstetrics & gynaecology, neonatal care and pediatrics.
I believe that the combination of being a critical anthropologist and a passionate doctor with a heart for the quality of lives of individuals helps in reviewing health in a broader perspective and understanding relations between the macro- and micro level.
At KIT I develop and implement advisory, evaluation and research projects related to SRHR in low and middle-income countries, with a focus on maternal and newborn health. Furthermore I am involved in educational, training and capacity building activities.
My most recent work focuses on strengthening health care providers’ roles, and contributions to advocacy and public health issues. I also focus on innovations that arise at the intersection of medical and social sciences, working to establish these advancements in institutions and societies. By utilizing a people-centered approach and applying system-level thinking, I aim to ensure the adoption, sustainability, scalability, and reach of innovations, particularly benefiting those most in need.
Projects
Publications
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How do we learn in advocacy and why is that important?
Advocacy is a crucial activity in advancing human rights and systemtransformation. In the past decades, development agents have thereforeincreasingly invested in advocacy projects. The process of advocacy is complex. Especially advocacy for issues that are sensitive and subject to stigma, like safe abortion. Despite substantial evidence on the importance of access to safe abortion, it […]
- Year of publication
- 2025
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Uniting Resources and Solidarity: Gaza Initiative Conference Amsterdam
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Report
“Uniting Knowledge, Resources and Solidarity”, the third Gaza Health Initiative (GHI) conference, held on Friday, 13 September 2024 at KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam convened over 200 humanitarian and development practitioners, global health experts and policy makers, working in Gaza and internationally, to support the recovery of Gaza’s devastated health sector. The conference discussed […]
- Year of publication
- 2024
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Professional societies of obstetrics and gynecology as agents of change in sexual and reproductive health
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Article
In 2019, FIGO started implementing its abortion project focusing on advocacy. The Advocacy for Safe Abortion (ASA) Project was conducted in partnership with 10 national professional societies of obstetrics and gynecology in Latin America and Africa. The project aimed to strengthen national societies, support them to be leaders in sexual and reproductive health, and enable […]
- Year of publication
- 2024
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The role of healthcare providers in expanding legal abortion:Qualitative insights from Argentina, Ireland, and South Korea
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Article
Abortion laws are key in creating an enabling environment that facilitates the advancement of people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Around 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws in the last decades by adding new grounds allowing abortion. The road toward the expansion of legal abortion is a long, highly sensitive, and difficult process. […]
- Year of publication
- 2024
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Power to You(th) Baseline Report – Ghana
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Report
Young People’s perspectives and decision-making regarding harmful practices, sexual and gender-based violence and unintended pregnancy.
- Year of publication
- 2022
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Regional Context Analysis of SRHR in sub-Saharan Africa
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Research article
Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is an important focus of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and is embedded in various policy frameworks and strategies, including the Regional Strategy for SRHR in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 2015–2021. As part of an in-depth review to reflect on the current strategy and for Sida to develop recommendations to the Swedish government […]
- Year of publication
- 2020
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Key lessons from a mixed-method evaluation of a postnatal home visit programme in the humanitarian setting of Gaza
The World Health Organization recommends postnatal home visits to improve maternal and newborn health, but there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of postnatal home visits effectiveness in humanitarian settings. This paper evaluates postnatal home visits implemented in the constrained humanitarian context of Gaza.
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Formative Evaluation of Early Childhood Development interventions on children living with developmental delays and disabilities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
This formative evaluation, covering the period 2018-2020, seeks to guide UNICEF and its partners on how to scale-up the pilot phase of this program in the short to medium-term (at least up to 2022). Its purpose is to (1) generate evidence and recommendations on the perceived use of the program and its effect on the […]
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Evaluation of a Postnatal Home Visiting Program for mothers, neonates and their families in Gaza, State of Palestine, over the period 2011 – 2016
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Evaluation
The United Nations International Children’s Fund State of Palestine (UNICEF SoP) has contracted the KIT-Juzoor consortium to conduct an external evaluation of the Post Natal Home Visiting (PNHV) programme for postnatal mothers, neonates and their families implemented in Gaza in a humanitarian context. This final report describes the purpose of the evaluation, the methodology used, […]
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Assessment and potential for scale up of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology Outreach programme
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Report
Evaluation report and an executive summary Since 2008, the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology (ISUOG), through ISUOG Outreach, aims to bring comprehensive and sustainable obstetric and gynaecology ultrasound education to lower resourced settings through a train the trainer’s approach. As of 2020, ISUOG aims to move to more comprehensive programming for its […]
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Advocating safe abortion: outcomes of a multi‐country needs assessment on the potential role of national societies of obstetrics and gynecology
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Report
In 2019 the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) embarked on an initiative that aims to strengthen the capacity of 10 national societies of obstetrics and gynecology (ObGyn) in advocacy for safe abortion. In 2018 needs assessments that entailed a desk study, interviews, and stakeholder workshops were conducted in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, […]
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Advocacy for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion -Zambia
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Report
Country report: Project of the Zambia Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ZAGO) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) This end evaluation covers the period from the start of the project (in April 2019) until the end in March 2022, which marked the end of three years of project implementation. It focuses on […]
- Year of publication
- 2022
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Project on Prevention of Maternal Mortality Arising from Unsafe Abortion and Enhancing Access to Post-Abortion Care Through Advocacy – Kenya
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Report
Country report: Project of the Kenya Obstetrical Gynaecological Society (KOGS) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) This end evaluation covers the period from the start of the project (April 2019) until end of March 2022, which marked the end of three years of project implementation. The evaluation primarily focused on measuring the […]
- Year of publication
- 2022
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Randomized Single-Blinded Non-inferiority Trial Of 7 mg/kg Pentamidine Isethionate Versus 4 mg/kg Pentamidine Isethionate for Cutaneous Leishmaniaisis in Suriname.
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Research article
- Year of publication
- 2015
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