The overarching aim of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015. MDG 5 is to “Improve Maternal Health” by “reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters”. IPPF had been calling for an additional target to be incorporated into MDG 5 to reflect the centrality of reproductive health in achieving many, if not all of the MDGs. This new target was based on the core goal of the ICPD: “to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015.” As reported by Update at the end of last year, the new universal access target was finally agreed upon by the United Nations. The global SRHR community was successful in this area by developing indicators for the new target (See news below).
Research Summary: A study was conducted by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in nine hotels among youth (aged 15 to 24 years) who visited hotels in Dhaka city to buy sex from female sex workers (FSWs), to generate knowledge on risk behavior and practices. The study has identified clients of FSWs as a bridging population for the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Bangladesh. Around half of them visit FSWs at least once in a month and have high rates of STI and low STI care-seeking behavior. Although they have knowledge about HIV/AIDS, their condom use is also low. Youth friendly health services need to be strengthened to offer STI management and STI/HIV counseling services targeted to youth. Appropriate strategies for interventions among young clients of sex workers need to be implemented as well as the testing of different strategies targeting both female sex workers and clients. For these types of combined strategies, the involvement of gatekeepers (particularly hotel management) is essential. For details of this study contact Jo Grzelinska (jo_grzelinska@bigpond.com ). For a summary report write to access@ippfsar.org
Resources: Facts sheets based on India’s 2005-06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS third round) are now available at: www.nfhsindia.org. According to the NFHS, women in India are having fewer children and infant mortality has dropped in the seven-year period since the last NFHS.
News: The UN’s Inter Agency Expert Group has recently announced the indicators for the new target for MDG 5. The targets with the new indicators for MDG 5 are as follows:
Target 1: Reduce the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters. Indicators: MMR and proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel.
Target 2. Achieve universal access to reproductive health. Indicators: Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), unmet need for Family Planning, Adolescent Birth Rate (15-19) and Ante natal care coverage.
Events: The Global Forum for Health Research (GFHR) and The Lancet are sponsoring their second joint essay competition on the occasion of Forum 11, the 2007 annual meeting of the GFHR in Beijing, People's Republic of China (from 29 October to 2 November 2007). Entries relating to some aspect of the overall theme of Forum 11: Equitable access - research challenges for health in developing countries are invited from young professionals working in or interested in the broad spectrum of health research for development. Deadline for submissions: 20 April 2007. For more details please visit: http://www.globalforumhealth.org/Site/000__Home.php
Please send your feedback/information etc. to access@ippfsar.org IPPF SARO Team