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Reproductive and Sexual Health@ (93)

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536,000 deaths a year: the childbirth toll

Article from The Guardian newspaper summarizing a report from The Lancet on Womens' health during pregnancy and childbirth. Statistics shows that little progress has been made in decreasing the number of women dying as a result of childbirth in the developing world (Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, 12 October 2007).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/536.doc

(Added: Fri Oct 12 2007   Hits: 93)

A Decade After Cairo: Women's Health in a Free Market Economy

The 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo was heralded as a "quantum leap" forward and a "paradigm shift in the discourse about population and development". Its Programme of Action, endorsed by 179 countries and intended to establish international and national population policy for the following two decades, was the first and most comprehensive international policy document to promote the concepts of reproductive rights and reproductive health. One decade later, however, maternal mortality worldwide remains high. Some 600,000 women die each year, 95 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and 18 million are left disabled or chronically ill because of largely preventable complications during pregnancy or childbirth. This briefing summarises the actions of several women's groups to influence the outcome of the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development and evaluates with hindsight some of the successes and failures of the Programme of Action. (The Corner House, June, 2004)

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/item.shtml?x=62140#introduction

(Added: Mon Sep 04 2006   Modified: Mon Jul 02 2007   Hits: 230)

Addressing Gender Perspectives in HIV Prevention

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA): 'HIV Prevention Now' Programme Briefs, No.4, February 2002. For UNFPA, commitment to addressing the critical role that gender plays in sexual and reproductive life, and how it impacts on HIV prevention, are key to successful programming. It is important to note that this Programme Brief does not attempt to cover gender issues in an exhaustive manner, but rather reviews some of the major implications specific to HIV/AIDS as well as those actions with the greatest relation to UNFPA's support to country responses to the epidemic. Therefore, the focus is placed on the three core areas of UNFPA's work in HIV prevention: prevention among young people, prevention in pregnant women and comprehensive condom programming.

http://www.unfpa.org/hiv/prevention/hivprev4a.htm

(Added: Fri Jun 21 2002   Modified: Thu Jul 20 2006   Hits: 439)

China: the intersections between poverty, health inequity, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS

This article argues that chronic and long term underinvestment in the health sector has created a public health crisis in China today. The weakened health system intersects with poverty and gender inequity which erodes women's right to basic health services. At the same time, as family planning programmes move away from their historically coercive practices (one child per family policy), the health system is increasingly unable to maintain basic access to provide for maternal health or the new challenges to women's health posed by HIV. (Joan Kaufman, Gender and Health Equity Network, 2005)

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ghen/resources/papers/KaufmanChinaHealthSystem.pdf

(Added: Wed Aug 23 2006   Hits: 203)

Consumption, health, gender and poverty (pdf)

Anne Case and Angus Deaton. May 2003. Research Program in Development Studies Princeton University. This paper is concerned with methods for measuring poverty that allow men and women to be differentially poor. The currently dominant method of measuring poverty, in the World Bank and elsewhere, counts the number of people who live in households whose collective household income (or expenditure) is less than some cutoff. Because these income-based methods rely on household measures of resources, they have limited ability to measure differences in poverty between men and women, who typically live together in households. Nevertheless, the literature contains a number of methods that, at least in principle, allow separate poverty counts for men and women using only household-level measures of resources. In Section 1, we discuss some of them, and present some results using data from India and South Africa. All such methods rest on controversial, readily challenged, and not always transparent assumptions. Our conclusion is that,while they often produce results that are interesting in their own right, they do not deliver everything we need. We think that it is unlikely in the foreseeable future that any of the methods will yield a generally useful and acceptable methodology for producing separate counts of the number of males and females in poverty. One possible remedy is to collect more data on individual rather than household consumption; there is scope for experimentation here, but there are also some real difficulties. The authorsof this paperargue that broader notions of wellbeing, which recognize education and health, are not only theoretically superior, but offer a much more promising route to gendered measures of poverty. Because these measures are gathered for people, not households, direct measurement by sex is immediate.

http://www.princeton.edu/~rpds/downloads/case_deaton_consumption_health_gender.pdf

(Added: Fri Aug 20 2004   Modified: Mon Feb 12 2007   Hits: 391)

DEVELOPMENT: Family Planning Gets Mere Sliver of Aid Pie

The United Nations warns that a sharp decline in international funding for reproductive health is threatening global efforts to reduce poverty, improve health and empower women worldwide.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41954

(Added: Mon Apr 21 2008   Modified: Fri May 09 2008   Hits: 64)

Gender - a Missing Dimension in Human Resource Policy and Planning for Health Reforms (PDF)

Special Article by Hilary Standing, Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK and Consultant, Health Sector Reform Programme, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. This article takes up the relatively neglected issue of gender in human resources policy and planning (HRPP), with particular reference to the health sector in developing countries. Current approaches to human resources lack any reference to gender issues. Meeting the health needs of women as major users and potential beneficiaries of health services is a key international concern. This article argues that in order to do this, attention must also be paid to both equal opportunities and efficiency issues in the health sector workforce, given the highly gender segregated nature of occupations in the health sector and the potential for both gender inequity and inefficiency in the use of human resources which this poses. Taking gender seriously in HRPP entails developing appropriate methodologies for data collection, monitoring and evaluation. The paper suggests some basic ways of doing this and provides a framework for incorporating gender concerns in health reform processes.

http://www.moph.go.th/ops/hrdj/hrdj9/pdf9/Gender41.pdf

(Added: Wed Jun 11 2003   Modified: Thu Jul 20 2006   Hits: 336)

Gender and AIDS

A one-stop online resource center on the gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, developed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Globally, 50 per cent of adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. The epidemic disproportionately affects women and adolescent girls who are socially, culturally, biologically and economically more vulnerable, and who shoulder the burden of caring for the sick and dying.

http://www.genderandaids.org/

(Added: Sun Feb 23 2003   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 284)

Gender, caste, class and health care access: experiences of rural households in Koppal district, Karnataka

This study examines access to health care in Koppal, Karnataka, and focuses specifically on gender, caste, class, age and life stage as categories of analysis. The study shows that access to health care is an important issue in poor villages, where 82 per cent of households had one or more sick persons requiring treatment. While access to health care is related to economic status and thus caste, women and men experience barriers to health care differently. The paper is based on a large household survey conducted in 56 villages in the region. (A Iyer, Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, 2006)

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ghen/resources/papers/genderrepiyer.pdf

(Added: Thu May 25 2006   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 184)

Gender, HIV and Human Rights: A Training Manual

By Madhu Bala Nath, UNAIDS/UNIFEM Gender & HIV Adviser. This manual aims to help trainers enhance their understanding about the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS, so that they can then effectively influence a critical mass of change makers in their "spheres of influence" to undertake appropriate responses to the challenges being posed by the epidemic.

http://www.unifem.undp.org/resources/hivtraining/

(Added: Fri Oct 18 2002   Modified: Thu Jul 20 2006   Hits: 317)

Gendered health systems biased against maternal survival: preliminary findings from Koppal, Karnataka, India

This paper outlines the context of pregnant women's lives and the plural health systems they encounter in Koppal, the most deprived district in the state of Karnataka, south India. Despite high levels of poverty and scarce resources supporting primary health care in the region, women with obstetric complications do access a range of health providers. Yet they still die. Although addressing the technical and managerial capacity constraints to ensuring equitable access to emergency obstetric care is essential, maternal well-being and survival cannot be effectively ensured without confronting the gender biases that also constrain health systems from supporting women's health and saving women's lives. (Asha George, Aditi Iyer and Gita Sen, Institute of Development Studies, September 2005)

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp253.pdf

(Added: Wed Aug 23 2006   Hits: 170)

International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC)

IWHC works to generate health and population policies, programs, and funding that promote and protect the rights and health of girls and women worldwide, particularly in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and countries in post-socialist transition.

http://www.iwhc.org/

(Added: Tue Apr 17 2001   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 367)

Keeping the promise: an agenda for action on women and AIDS (PDF)

UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, 2006. The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS was launched by UNAIDS in 2004 to respond to the increasing feminization of the HIV epidemic and a growing concern that existing AIDS strategies did not adequately address women's needs. A loose alliance of civil society groups, networks of women living with HIV and United Nations agencies, the Coalition works at global and national levels to advocate for improved AIDS programming for women and girls. It focuses on several key issues:preventing new HIV infections by improving access to reproductive health care; promoting equitable access to HIV care and treatment; ensuring universal access to education; securing women's property and inheritance rights; reducing violence against women; ensuring that women's care work is properly supported; advocating for increased research and funding for female-controlled HIV prevention methods; promoting women's leadership in the AIDS response. This publication looks at the agenda and strategies of the coalition.

http://test.earthscape.org/l2/ES17343/UNFPA_WomenAIDS.pdf

(Added: Tue Apr 10 2007   Hits: 130)

Malawi government proposes mandatory HIV test for pregnant women

Malawi's government is planning to table a controversial bill in Parliament which would require pregnant women to undergo HIV testing. The move is aimed at reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, but opponents of the proposed bill argue it would violate women's rights. (Plus News, 28/12/07

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75984

(Added: Thu Jan 03 2008   Hits: 42)

New Zealand child wellbeing ailing: International Save the Children report

Save the Children released its eighth annual Mothers' Index that ranks the best - and worst - places to be a mother and a child. The report compares the wellbeing of mothers and children in 140 countries (Save the Children, 8 May 2007).

http://www.savethechildren.org.nz/new_zealand/news/2007-05-08.html

(Added: Wed May 30 2007   Hits: 113)

Prevention Now

This global campaign was launched in August 2006 to push for universal access to female condoms as part of an accelerated and comprehensive response to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and to reduce unintended pregnancies worldwide. Known as Prevention Now!, the campaign is being led by the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), and joined by more than XX organizations, including NGOs, research organizations, and multilateral institutions concerned with human rights, sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

http://www.preventionnow.net

(Added: Wed Aug 16 2006   Hits: 170)

Protection of the rights of women with disabilities

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted last month. How does it address the needs of women? (Kathambi Kinoti, AWID, September 2006)

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=analysis&prefix=analysis&item=00334

(Added: Fri Nov 10 2006   Hits: 175)

Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA)

SWAA is a pan-African organization working in over 40 countries with and for women and their families to strengthen their capacity to prevent, control, and mitigate the impact of AIDS. One of their key areas of intervention is orphans and vulnerable children. SWAA is a partner of the Hope for African Children Initiative that works to increase the capacity of the affected communities to provide care, services and assistance to vulnerable children.

http://www.swaainternational.org/

(Added: Mon Dec 10 2007   Hits: 46)

The condom, the moon and the finger

Delhi, February 2003. For AIDS prevention education to be successful, powerful gender-sensitive messages must replace the nebulous 'moral framework', argues Anita Anand.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/feb/wom-conmoon.htm

(Added: Sun Mar 02 2003   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 292)

The International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS

ICW is honoured and proud to be the only international network which strives to share with the global community the experiences, views and contributions of 19 million incredible women worldwide, who are also HIV positive.

http://www.icw.org

(Added: Thu Jun 24 2004   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 355)

Trust in Aunties: Testimony and Counselling Through Teenage Mothers

This 36-page document shares the experience of the "Aunties Project" in Cameroon, an initiative to train teenage mothers through peer education. The project recruited and trained teenage mothers to give testimony on their own experiences and to give advice to other adolescents in their communities and schools to educate them about risky sexual behaviour. (Regina M. Goergen and Flavien Ndonko, April 2006)

http://www.evaplan.org/grafik/pdf/aunties.pdf

(Added: Thu Dec 06 2007   Hits: 57)

United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, helps developing countries find solutions to their population problems. UNFPA began operations in 1969. It is the largest international source of population assistance. About a quarter of all population assistance from donor nations to developing countries is channelled through UNFPA. The Fund has three main programme areas: Reproductive Health including Family Planning and Sexual Health, Population and Development Strategies and Advocacy.

http://www.unfpa.org/

(Added: Fri Mar 08 2002   Modified: Mon Dec 11 2006   Hits: 297)

What evidence is there about the effects of health care reforms on gender equity, particularly in health?

Emerging evidence shows that health care reforms can affect men and women differently, as a consequence of their different positions as users and producers of health care. This review assesses the impact of four key health care reforms - decentralization, financing, privatization and priority setting - on gender equity in health. (World Health Organisation, November 2005)

http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E87674.pdf

(Added: Wed Aug 23 2006   Hits: 148)

WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women

This report covers 15 sites and 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Peru, Namibia, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania. Report findings document the prevalence of intimate partner violence and its association with women's physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. Data is included on non-partner violence, sexual abuse during childhood and forced first sexual experience. Information is also provided on women's responses: Whom do women turn to and whom do they tell about the violence in their lives? Do they leave or fight back? Which services do they use and what response do they get? The report concludes with 15 recommendations to strengthen national commitment and action on violence against women. Data from the report show that violence against women is widespread and demands a public health response. (WHO, 2005)

http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/index.html

(Added: Wed Aug 23 2006   Modified: Wed Oct 11 2006   Hits: 158)

Women and Girls Living with HIV/AIDS: Overview and Annotated Bibliography

HIV/AIDS is both driven by and entrenches gender inequality, leaving women more vulnerable than men to its impact. This report - consisting of an overview, annotated bibliography, and contacts section - considers the specific challenges faced by women and girls who are living with HIV and AIDS(Emily Esplen, Bridge, February 2007).

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/BB18_HIV.pdf

(Added: Wed Oct 03 2007   Modified: Fri Oct 12 2007   Hits: 84)

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