The INFO Project Blog

Reproductive health and family planning take on even keener importance in conflict zones, where the unique circumstances can intensify the problems facing populations just as they hamper systematic responses of assistance. A fellow at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, Elizabeth Crowley, gave an interesting presentation to my class last week about the current work in conflict and post-conflict situations.  In addition to detailing the content of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for reproductive health in conflict situations, she spoke about the role that conflict is seen to play in the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. The patterns are not identical across contexts, but current research suggests that conflict and displacement may actually slow the spread of HIV.

She also directed her audience to two short UNFPA films: Women, War and Health, and Reproductive Health Services for Displaced Persons: A Decade of Progress. They are as pertinent now as ever.

-Posted by Ted Alcorn

I saw just the recent BBC article called UK Indian women ‘aborting girls,’ documenting the current realities of systematic, sex-selective abortion among groups of British women of Indian descent. This form of “gendercide” has also been called female infanticide/foeticide, and it is thought to account for 1,500 “missing girls” from the total number of births expected in the UK from 1990-2005.

The BBC interviewed one woman who admitted to aborting her baby girl for reasons of gender, who said,

Unfortunately it was another girl. My husband and I thought the burden would probably be too much and the pressure when I got back home. So we decided to terminate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Looking through a new UNICEF photo essay on the life cycle of girls, I couldn’t help but begin to think about the little girl from Haiti staring back at me through the screen. “Will she survive and thrive? Will her life be shaped primarily by gender discrimination or by the progress girls and women have made over the last century?”

After having spent part of last year in the Dominican Republic, I remember all the visits I made to the campo to visit a group of Haitian girls I played soccer with on the weekends. Their families had come to DR to look for work and better opportunities for their children…and some of them had found it. One of my Haitian soccer friends, Milanda, had won a scholarship from a Dominican university to study medicine—a clear example, to me, of some of the progress that has been made for women, regardless of race, in the Dominican Republic. And yet, there are plenty of stories and plenty of pictures that continue to show us the steps that still need to taken.      - Johanna

Click here to view “The life cycle of girls: Early childhood”
Photo Essay.

“Don’t mess with nature, otherwise it will lead to a mutation of society,” warned Renuka Chowdhry, India’s junior minister for women and child development, at the 4^th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights.

This statement, from a news article from Inter Press Service (IPS) on Monday from the conference in Hyderabad, India, hints at the irreversible harm that modern gender determination and sex selection techniques could cause. IPS calls gendercide rates “apocalyptic.”

153 million women are missing from the population in Asia, according to UNFPA’s regional report, “Sex-Ratio Imbalance in Asia: Trends, Consequences and Policy Responses,”. The report proposes to reduce sex-ratio imbalances through advocacy, sensitization and awareness-raising programs.

As Asia’s gap in sex ratios continues to grow, the region faces serious problems. In a context in which women are undervalued, interventions need to be well-thought out.

Discrimination and gendercide may be perpetuated and justified by people in certain countries where legislation is in place to regulate population growth.

Baige Zhao, China’s vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission attributes his country’s abnormal sex ratio in the IPS story to an age-old bias for sons, poor social security system and trend for smaller-sized families. IPS reports that China’s one-child policy imposed at that time,

and the high cost of child rearing provided just the climate for abusing modern technology.

According to Christophe Guilmoto, the report’s author, “the role of girls and women (in society) needs to be applauded.” With Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) fast approaching, men, women, and children should be at the center of all political, economic, and development agendas.

Studies have shown that each of the MDGs is inherently dependent on the status of women. Economic growth and prosperity cannot be achieved and sustained without women being invited to the table as equal stakeholders.Posted by Lisa Basalla, Program Specialist   

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/FGC) threatens the sexual and reproductive health of millions of girls in parts of Africa, Asia and some Arab States. Worldwide, about 130 million girls and young women have experienced FGM/FGC, and an additional 2 million are at risk each year.

In Egypt, there has been an increase in media coverage of this issue since 12-year-old Bedur Ahmed Shaker died in June as a result of the practice. The country’s First Lady, the Grand Mufti, the Head of the Coptic Church, and the Health Minister all made public statements condemning the practice.

On Sunday, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that many in Egypt believe its ban on the practice needs to be translated into law. This is expected to be a tough debate in Parliament’s next session next month. Official statistics show that 97% of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM.

Throughout the article, a number of women share their stories of how FGM affects them and how they deal with the consequences. The article ends with a Coptic nun speaking with a group of women trying to address their concerns and fears. In response to a mother’s question about a potential husband rejecting her daughter because she has not been circumcised and as a result her sexual organs are “too big,” the nun responded, “Do you take your daughter to the doctor to know if her nose or eyes are too big or small? So why would you do it for that part of the body.” The nun said that there has been progress because just ten years ago it was taboo event to say “female circumcision.”

However, many activists argue that not enough has been accomplished despite more than 25 years of efforts to curtail its practice. Please share your thoughts with us on this issue. 

For more information about FGM/C, please visit www.endvaw.org and/or OneSource’s records on FGM/C 

Posted by Lisa Basalla, Program Specialist