What Will Trump Presidency Mean for Women’s Health Abroad?
$600m in aid could be ‘cut drastically’ under a Trump administration.
Campaigners have warned that hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid could be at risk.
They have cited “worrisome” indicators and fear a reversal in aid commitments.
Ask environmental leaders where voluntary family planning fits into their organizations’ missions and goals, and most will draw a blank.
Their tasks are hard and often controversial enough without promoting expanded access to contraception, some might respond. Others might dismiss the importance of family planning with statements along the lines of “it’s not our numbers, but the way we consume, that matters.” This inaccurately equates family planning with population control, but it’s an understandable reaction. Even the progressive British newspaper The Guardian has endorsed such a statement editorially.
http://castlegarsource.com/news/opinion-does-family-planning-have-environmental-effects-42139#.V6T1j7iANBd
Struggling to save their failing crops. Walking farther afield to fetch clean water. Protecting their families from devastating storms and violent conflicts. “Women are usually the support systems for our family…we are the last to leave in the event of a catastrophe, which is why women and families are disproportionately hurt by climate catastrophes,” said Wilson Center President, Director, and CEO Jane Harman on June 23during a conference on women and climate change.
Washington DC – Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) offered an amendment today to State and Foreign Operations Appropriations that would remove harmful funding cuts for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Ryan Amendment would strike the current funding cap of $461 million on bilateral family planning, and instead insert a funding floor of $585 million (matching the President’s request) for UNFPA’s programs that provide contraceptive services in the 46 countries that administer these necessary programs and in Zika- affected countries. This will help reduce maternal mortality, promote women’s human rights, and contribute to the stability of communities across the globe.
https://timryan.house.gov/press-release/congressman-tim-ryan-works-increase-funding-zika-defenses
Doctor Melania Amorim works at the heart of the Zika epidemic, delivering babies in Campina Grande in northeastern Brazil. Of the 59 babies affected by Zika that have been born at the public hospital where she is an obstetrician, one was stillborn and eight died within 48 hours. Most of those that survived are extremely disabled with deformed arms, atrophied brains or other abnormalities.
The UN agency responsible for ending deaths in childbirth is facing a $140m (£98m) shortfall in its budget this year, putting the lives of tens of thousands of women at risk.
The UN population fund, UNFPA, had been expecting about $482m (£335m) from member states this year for its core budget, which funds operational costs. But huge cuts from some of the agency’s largest donors means it will now receive around $340m (£237m).
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/16/fears-that-maternal-health-funding-cuts-will-put-lives-at-risk