‘Universal Access’ to SRHR implies that everyone will have equal chance of accessing information and services on prevention, diagnosis, counseling, treatment and care. Individuals will enjoy informed choices about sexuality and reproduction, a safe and satisfying sexual life and freedom from violence and coercion. All women will experience pregnancy and childbirth safely and couples will have the best chance of having an infant and women will avoid unwanted pregnancy. All women and men will be able to access high quality SRHR services that cater to their needs. The rights and needs of people living with HIV/AIDS are recognized and appropriate SRHR information and services are made available to them. Clients will use services with privacy and confidentiality, and they will be treated with dignity and respect. To move beyond considering universal access as a goal to be strived towards, we need to persuade governments to ensure equity in access to services and address any wider discriminatory policy and law that could constrain access in our countries. ‘Rights based approach’ calls for action by communities to claim universal access to SRHR.
Research Summary: Lancet has published a research paper titled ‘Unsafe abortion: the preventable pandemic’ in November 2006. According to this paper, every year, about 19–20 million abortions are done by individuals without the requisite skills or in environments below minimum medical standards or both. Nearly all unsafe abortions (97%) are in developing countries. An estimated 68,000 women die as a result, and millions more have complications, many permanent. Important causes of death include hemorrhage, infection, and poisoning. Legalization of abortion on request is a necessary but insufficient step toward improving women’s health; in some countries, such as India, where abortion has been legal for decades, access to competent care remains restricted because of other barriers. In India, access through the public health system is mainly restricted to cities. Despite a mandate to provide abortion services, in most states fewer than 20% of primary health care centers do so. Many centers only sporadically provide service either because of a shortage of trained physicians or functioning equipment. The paper argues that the availability of modern contraception can reduce but never eliminate the need for abortion. Direct costs of treating abortion complications burden impoverished health care systems, and indirect costs also drain struggling economies. The underlying causes of this global pandemic are apathy and disdain for women; they suffer and die because they are not valued. Read the full paper at: http://www.svss-uspda.ch/pdf/lancet-unsafe%20abortion.pdf
Resources: CIVICUS has produced a range of toolkits to enable organizations to improve their capacity in a number of communication and planning areas. The areas covered range from ‘how to write a funding proposal’ to ‘developing more effective action planning skills’. Down load all resources from: http://www.civicus.org/new/default.asp?skip2=yes
News: Dr. Malek Afzali, a senior volunteer with FPA Iran was selected as one of the winners of 2007 United Nation Population Award for his ‘outstanding work in population and in the health and welfare of individuals’ by the 10-nation Committee for the United Nations Population Award. The award was shared by three others who included two institutions viz. Algeria's National Population Committee and Malaysia's National Population and Family Development Board.
Events: MEASURE Evaluation in collaboration with the Institute for Population and Social Research of Mahidol University, Thailand will be offering a Regional Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Population, Health and Nutrition Programs in October/November 2007. A limited number of fellowships are also available. For more information please contact measure_training@unc.edu or visit the website at: https://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/training/workshops/thailand.html.
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access@ippfsar.org
IPPF SARO Team