Sexual Health Services Can't Be 'Afterthought' For Women In Conflict Zones: UN

More than 500 women a day die from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth in states facing conflict or disaster.
In this photograph taken on July 15, 2015, a Nepalese villager is monitored by a health worker at a makeshift birthing centre in the village of Gerkhu in Nuwakot, north of Kathmandu. Some 70 percent of clinics that had been providing crucial services to pregnant women were severely damaged in the Nepalese districts hardest hit by the 7.8 magnitude quake on April 25.
In this photograph taken on July 15, 2015, a Nepalese villager is monitored by a health worker at a makeshift birthing centre in the village of Gerkhu in Nuwakot, north of Kathmandu. Some 70 percent of clinics that had been providing crucial services to pregnant women were severely damaged in the Nepalese districts hardest hit by the 7.8 magnitude quake on April 25.
PRAKASH MATHEMA via Getty Images

LONDON, Dec 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Around a quarter of the 100 million people globally who need humanitarian aid are women or teenage girls of childbearing age, but sexual and reproductive health services are underfunded, a United Nations agency said on Thursday.

More than 500 women a day die from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth in states facing conflict or disaster, a U.N. population fund (UNFPA) study said, three fifths of maternal deaths occurring in these "fragile" countries.

"The health and rights of women and adolescents should not be treated like an afterthought in humanitarian response," Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of UNFPA, said in a statement on the study.

"For the pregnant woman who is about to deliver, or the adolescent girl who survived sexual violence, life-saving services are as vital as water, food and shelter."

Women in need of aid because of conflict or disaster are more vulnerable to sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, he said.

"Having the means to prevent a pregnancy and being safe from sexual violence - these are basic human rights. Women don't stop giving birth when a conflict breaks out or disaster strikes."

In this Monday, March 16, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Shams Alhamadah, 24, who is two months pregnant with her fifth child, poses for a portrait with her son Ismail inside their tent at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan.
In this Monday, March 16, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Shams Alhamadah, 24, who is two months pregnant with her fifth child, poses for a portrait with her son Ismail inside their tent at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Some 59.5 million people worldwide are currently displaced by conflict - around a fifth of them Syrians, the largest number since the end of World War Two, the UNFPA study said.

While sprawling refugee camps like Dadaab in Kenya and Zaatari in Jordan get much of the media's attention, two in three refugees live in urban areas. For the minority who do live in camps, the average stay is 20 years, the study said.

Directing humanitarian aid to protect women of childbearing age is crucial, both to lessen present suffering and reduce it in the future, but current resources are insufficient, Osotimehin said.

"We need to do a much better job of helping the most vulnerable, especially adolescent girls. But we must also do a much better job of investing in a more stable world, capable of withstanding the storms ahead."

DISASTERS IN ASIA

While the Asia-Pacific region is home to many long-running conflicts, it also suffers the most disasters in the world, with a continuous onslaught of floods, typhoons and droughts.

UNFPA ramped up humanitarian assistance after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in March, twin earthquakes hit Nepal a month later, and Cyclone Komen in Myanmar and Typhoon Koppu in the Philippines caused flooding in both countries.

The agency said it is finding it increasingly difficult to ensure that it can meet the demands for help in a timely manner.

"2015 has been such a challenging year. Across the Asia-Pacific region, we remain largely underfunded to meet the minimal sexual and reproductive health and protection needs of women and adolescents in emergencies," said Priya Marwah, UNFPA humanitarian coordinator for the Asia-Pacific.

(Reporting By Joseph D'Urso and Alisa Tang, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

Images Show How Syrian Refugees Live And Why They Left

The Huffington Post
Close

What's Hot