Reproductive Health: The continuing challenge
- PDF / 90,480 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 536 x 697 pts Page_size
- 77 Downloads / 219 Views
19/1/99 9:19 am
Page 38
Development. Copyright © 1999 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (199903) 42:1; 38–40; 007338.
Thematic Section
Reproductive Health: The continuing challenge ADRIENNE GERMAIN
ABSTRACT Adrienne Germain, a core negotiator for the US government during the Cairo and Beijing Conferences, reflects on how challenging it is to put into action hard-won promises. She argues that on balance things are going well but that the good is hampered by the bad . . . and the ugly.
The good Governments, NGOs, international agencies and donors are implementing the vision of Cairo. Here are some examples. Reforming the health system in Bangladesh In 1998, after three years of intensive work, Bangladesh has, for the first time, a comprehensive national health and population sector programme, based on the definition of reproductive health used in the Cairo Programme of Action. Recognizing that maternal mortality in Bangladesh is as high today as it was 25 years ago, the government, civil society, international agencies and donors have agreed to augment a focused family planning programme with a more comprehensive approach to reproductive health care, including essential obstetric services, continued access to menstrual regulation, improvements in the quality of family planning services and programs for young people. Engaging adolescents in Nigeria In 1995, Action Health Incorporated (AHI), one of Nigeria’s most effective NGOs working for sexual and reproductive health and rights, opened a reproductive health clinic for young people. Responding to adolescents’ needs, including alarming rates of HIV infection – 62 percent of AIDS cases from 1986 to 1995 were among young women aged 15 to 29 – the clinic provides counselling, testing, treatment, and referral for contraception, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV/AIDS, and sexual violence. Nike Esiet, AHI’s founder, reports: ‘We are helping make Cairo a reality by empowering young people to take charge of their lives in ways they never would have before.’
08 Ð Germain
19/1/99 9:19 am
Page 39
Germain: Reproductive Health Women mobilizing for change in Brazil An estimated 1.4 million women have clandestine abortions annually in Brazil. and last year over 250,000 of them were hospitalized due to serious complications. The national women’s health movement in Brazil blocked an attempt to insert a rightto-life clause in the country’s constitution. They have fought successfully to ensure that women who are allowed by law to have an abortion (in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the woman) can receive safe services in public hospitals. Since Cairo, the women’s movement has worked with 13 hospitals in 7 cities to help train and equip staff to provide those services. Expanding work on technology development and distribution Considerable progress has been made on the development of microbicides – substances used intravaginally to protect against STDs –
Data Loading...
