News
Reproductive Health for the Displaced: Special Report Now Online
- 26 February 2004
New York —Why does Afghanistan have the highest maternal mortality rate in the world? What four conditions must be met to reduce it?
How is a missionary helping hundreds of former bush wives and survival sex workers in post-war Sierra Leone come together as a family to rebuild their lives and their country?
Why is meeting the reproductive health needs of displaced Colombians a critical step in restoring their lost social and political rights?
These and other issues are addressed in a special issue of the journal Forced Migration Review – Reproductive Health for Displaced People: Investing in the Future – now online at http://www.fmreview.org/mags1.htm. Sponsored by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the journal highlights lessons from recent reproductive health research and programming in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Field reports from West Africa, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Colombia, Yemen and the Thailand/Myanmar border celebrate progress in delivering reproductive health services but warn of the challenges faced by humanitarian agencies working to safeguard the reproductive health of the displaced. Other articles examine the issue of gender-based violence in displaced communities, and how conflict endangers the reproductive health of adolescents and youth.
The special issue was co-edited by UNFPA and Marie Stopes International. An introduction by the guest editors traces the relatively short history of reproductive health provision in humanitarian settings, and notes progress to date. “Today, in comparison with ten years ago, a refugee woman has a far better chance of having a safe pregnancy and delivery, and has improved access to emergency obstetric care, information and services for prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS and treatment and counselling for the effects of sexual and gender-based violence.”
“Yet, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development,” the editors warn, ideological opposition to some aspects of reproductive health services and subsequent funding cuts are causing many humanitarian reproductive health projects to be scaled back, “greatly endangering the health of countless women, men and children living in already precarious situations.”
To obtain a hard copy of this issue or to subscribe to Forced Migration Review, please send an email to fmr@geh.ox.ac.uk.
Contact information:
William A. Ryan
Tel.: +66 2 288 2446
Email: ryanw@unfpa.org
David del Vecchio
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-4975
Email: delvecchio@unfpa.org
