‘Completely Failing Women’: Why the Zika Epidemic is Really a Women’s Rights Crisis

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

A participant coined it as “sleeping with the government”. It is another way of saying building strategic alliance with government when conducting advocacy. It was the first time I was hearing the phrase “sleeping with the government” at a three-day expert meeting on family planning budget advocacy in sub-Saharan Africa organized by Population Action International (PAI) that took place from March 9-11, 2016 at Valverde Hotel, on the outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201604050711.html

Co-authored by Simon Wright

On February 1st, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the Zika virus a public health emergency. The declaration was the WHO’s highest level of warning–so dire, in fact, that it has only been declared three times in the organization’s history. We believe that, as with Ebola, the lesson we learn must be the importance of robust universal primary health care services.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-ehlers/zika-outbreak-signals-the_b_9190034.html

The historic agreement reached at Paris on climate change outlined a range of activities, research, and technical cooperation to mitigate climate change. Intended nationally determined commitments to reduce carbon emissions have been submitted by most countries. Financing to developing countries for climate change has been promised with a publicized target of at least $100 billion per year.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/future-development/posts/2016/02/16-climate-change-fertility-girls-education-kharas

When Ephraim Kisangala describes what he sees as a physician in Uganda, his voice is heavy with the weight of his work. He tells the story of his patient Jovia (not her real name) is a 14-year-old Ugandan girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member. Jovia’s pelvis was too narrow and underdeveloped to deliver her baby, so Ephraim was forced to perform an emergency cesarean section. Jovia still hopes to pursue an education, though as a young, single mother it will not be easy.

 

https://www.devex.com/news/future-reproductive-freedom-starts-by-giving-youth-a-seat-at-the-table-87651

In response to Latin America’s sudden outbreak of Zika – the insect-borne virus linked to a serious fetal brain defect – some of the region’s countries are telling women to shun pregnancy for months if not years.

We can debate whether that strategy is appropriate. Rights groups, for example, have a point when they say it puts an unfair if not unrealistic onus on women when the focus should be eradicating mosquitoes.

http://wlrn.org/post/good-way-stop-zika-harming-latin-american-babies-stop-teen-pregnancy

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains one of our world’s greatest challenges, impacting one in three womenduring the course of their lifetime. For those displaced or otherwise affected by humanitarian emergencies, therisk and vulnerability to many forms of GBV including sexual violence or exploitation, intimate partner violence, and child marriage increases significantly. While the use of rape as a weapon of war may garner the bulk of public attention, increased risk also results from displacement itself. For displaced women and girlsfulfilling essential needs such as using the latrine, obtaining food and water or collecting fuel may present not only difficulties but danger. These issues are compounded by the breakdown in family and community support structures and services, as well as the often weak infrastructure and lack of privacy and protections available in camps or other settlements for displaced people.

http://feministing.com/2015/12/14/addressing-gbv-is-the-responsibility-of-everyone-in-the-humanitarian-community/

Shilpi, 25, has two young daughters and wants to wait at least five years before she tries for a son. She uses birth control pills, which she gets alternately from her accredited social health activist (ASHA), a community health worker in her rural village in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, or from the local community health center. But the ASHA doesn’t always have the pills, the community health center is 6 miles away, and Shilpi doesn’t have a car. Supply limits mean neither the ASHA nor the community health center are able to give her more than a month’s supply of pills at a time, so at the end of every month, Shilpi tries the ASHA, then maybe the health center, then maybe each of them again, as she hustles to refill her contraception.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a49528/iud-access-in-india/

On Friday, the UN released its list of sustainability goals for the next 15 years, and achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls was number five on the list. According to experts like Allison Doody, an international advocacy associate, there’s no way we can do that without access to safe abortions.

On Friday, the UN released its list of sustainability goals (SDGs) for the next 15 years, and achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls was number five on the list. Of the 16 other interrelated goals, issues around climate change featured prominently. As the regional director of Planned Parenthood, Carmen Barroso, urged in her New York Times op-ed, one way to combat gender inequality along with promoting environmental sustainability is to support women’s right to abortion and contraception. This year, a report by the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health concluded that improving access to family planning services is the most cost-effective way to address population growth, food insecurity, and climate change. The report estimated that a $9.4 billion annual investment in reproductive health would prevent 52 million unintended pregnancies every year and provide 16 to 29 percent of the needed emissions reductions to slow global climate change. And while the ancillary environmental effects are great, we can’t forget that there are 225 million women in the world who want to use contraception but don’t have access.

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/reuse-reduce-reproductive-rights-how-abortion-can-help-save-the-planet

The Helms Amendment stipulates that US foreign aid can’t support abortion “as a method of family planning.” But it’s been interpreted as a total ban on abortion—including in cases of rape and threat to the mother’s life.

Monica Oguttu is the CEO of KMET, a Kenya-based organization that works to ensure that underserved communities can access quality reproductive health care services. When rape victims come to KMET clinics in need of assistance, the providers there provide them with numerous resources: emergency contraception, post-exposure prophylactics, and counseling. But if a patient returns later saying she’s pregnant, there’s nothing Monica or her colleagues can do.

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/how-the-united-states-is-hurting-rape-victims-around-the-world

As aid groups search for ways to keep countries accountable for the ambitious sustainable development goals, some are pointing to existing mechanisms, like cost implementation plans, to guide aid budgets and track country progress.

https://www.devex.com/news/can-a-tool-to-map-aid-budgets-be-used-to-keep-tabs-on-the-sdgs-86711