The maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high in Africa. Forty per cent of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide occur in Africa. On average, over 7 women die per 1,000 live births. About 22,000 African women die each year from unsafe abortion, reflecting a high unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive use among women in union varies from 50 per cent in the southern sub-region to less than 10 per cent in middle and western Africa" UNFPA
Early and unwanted childbearing, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy-related illnesses and deaths account for a significant proportion of the burden of illness experienced by women in Africa. Gender-based violence is an influential factor negatively impacting on the sexual and reproductive health of one in every three women. Many are unable to control decisions to have sex or to negotiate safer sexual practices, placing them at great risk of disease and health complications.
According to UNAIDS, there is an estimated of 22.2 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan African in 2009, which represents 68% of the global HIV burden. Women are at higher risk than men to be infected by HIV, their vulnerability remains particulary high in the Sub-Saharan Africa and 76% of all HIV women in the world live in this region.
In almost all countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged between 15-24. Not only are women more likely to become infected, they are more severely affected. Their income is likely to fall if an adult man loses his job and dies. Since formal support to women are very limited, they may have to give up some income-genrating activities or sacrifice school to take care of the sick relatives.
For more information on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive health, please visit the following websites:
Three Ugandan health workers have made it to the final shortlist of the inaugural Women in Focus Awards that will take place in Geneva, Switzerland this week. The awards celebrate the crucial role played by women in the on-going fight against neglected tropical diseases, a role which often goes unrecognised and unrewarded.
Source: Human Rights Watch
The Angolan government must allow protesters to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today, ahead of a planned demonstration in Luanda for a woman’s right to have an abortion.
The Ministry of Gender Children Social Protection with funding from the World Bank has for the first time launched the Girls Ebola Recovery Livelihood Support or (GERLS) project in the country. The project will benefit 200 adolescent girls and young women in the three counties including Montserrado, Margibi, and Grand Bassa that are interested in improving and expanding their businesses.
Source: allAfrica
Thyolo — Thyolo-Luchenza Sex Workers Association has elected new leadership during elections held on Friday at Luchenza Community Centre Hall.
Source: allAfrica
Human rights activists in Malawi have urged authorities to enact new Termination of Pregnancy legislation following revelations that 141,000 abortions occurred in the southern African nation in 2015.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Egypt has the highest number of women affected by female genital mutilation in the world. Silence around female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt is costing lives, campaigners warned on Tuesday ahead of the traditional "cutting season" when thousands of girls are expected to undergo the ancient ritual.
Source: The Guardian
Each day she sets out to speak to young girls about family planning, Elizabeth Akoth, 23, sees how myths about the use of contraceptives are entrenched in her western Kenyan community.
When she explains the various methods they can use to prevent unintended pregnancies, they ask searching questions such as, “Is it true drugs offered for family planning can lead to death?” and “Do they even work?”
Akoth and her fellow peer educators in Homa Bay, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria, have educated dozens of girls on the family planning options available to them, undoubtedly saving many from the unintended pregnancies that often force girls to drop out of school.
But their work may well grind to a halt following the re-imposition by the Trump administration of the global gag rule, a policy that cuts funding to foreign organisations if they provide abortion information, referrals or services, or if they engage in any advocacy on abortion rights with their own funds. Organisations are offered the choice to stop offering these services and still receive funding, or to continue and lose financial support.
Campaigners say the policy will have a devastating impact on millions in many developing countries.
“This blocks access to sexual and reproductive health services in the poorest and hardest to reach communities where we are currently changing lives,” says Tewodros Melesse, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). “We can’t support something which tries to restrict people’s choices or take them away. The global gag rule undermines those human rights, so IPPF cannot sign the policy.”
Ending this US aid, which currently stands at $600m (£474m), will result in cuts to funding for sexual and reproductive health services in at least 30 countries where IPPF partner organisations work.
Campaigners say this will have a negative effect on the most vulnerable groups that benefit from family planning advice: teenage girls.
About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19, and one million girls under the age of 15, give birth every year, according to the World Health Organization. The majority of these girls live in low- and middle-income countries. Globally, complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 and 19.
Girls who become pregnant in their teens face considerable stigma and are often forced to drop out of school, spelling a life marked by early marriage and low-skilled jobs. This has a larger economic cost to countries as they lose out on the income an educated young woman would have earned if she had finished school.
Babies born to adolescent mothers also face a substantially higher risk of dying young than those born to women aged 20 to 24, the WHO finds.
Bernard Washiaka, programme manager for Family Health Options Kenya, one of the country’s main providers of sexual and reproductive health services, says an end to its programmes would have a major effect on many women and young girls.
“We live in a patriarchal, male-dominated society and the advice and information we offer helps to empower girls,” he says. “They can enjoy their sexuality while avoiding unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The services are entirely voluntary and based on the decisions of the girls, but we have seen the impact they] have ... Girls are able to stay in school for a longer which opens up a world of opportunity.”
Washiaka, whose organisation’s primary outreach tool is deploying trained peer educators such as Akoth, said there is a risk of returning to the situation of the 80s and 90s, when the implementation of the global gag rule by successive Republican administrations caused the closure of numerous clinics in many underserved communities in Kenya.
Other programmes that may face closure include a pilot initiative in Uganda that distributes Sayana Press, a three-month injectable contraceptive that combines the drug and needle in one unit. The contraceptive can be distributed easily across communities and be self-administered at home.
Uganda has one of the highest fertility rates and youngest populations in the world; almost half of Ugandans are under the age of 15 and 78% of the population is younger than 30. Millions of Ugandans living in rural communities do not have access to family planning facilities and Jackson Chekweko, executive director of Reproductive Health Uganda, told the Guardian that the organisation would have to end many of its activities if USAid terminates financial assistance.
“As well as reaching more people with family planning services, we need to give women more choices about the form of contraception they want. Sayana Press does that,” he says.
Family Health Options Kenya is lobbying local government administrations to allocate funds for family planning from their health budgets. But, says Washiaka, they face a difficult battle because county administrators have to cater for numerous health challenges with a limited budget.
“We will also have to lobby non-traditional donors, such as the Japanese aid agency [Jica] and the Swedish aid agency [Sida]. The alternative is to leave our young children facing a bleak future.”
Source: allAfrica
The number of children a woman of reproductive age bears has been declining globally. Yet childbearing expectations in some parts of Africa remain high. In Ghana, for example, the total fertility rate - the average number of children expected per woman over a lifetime - stands at 4.2.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
As a nurse in rural Democratic Republic of Congo where health facilities are scarce and patients often arrive too late for treatment, Jeanne Empunda is used to dealing with child deaths.
Source: AllAfrica
Twenty-three-year-old Radiya Ahmed Rufai is about to deliver her first child. But she has developed pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy disorder that leads to a sharp rise in blood pressure.
Source: allAfrica
The plague of Child marriages and teenage pregnancies continue to deprive young girls of their childhood, and the potential to become drivers of Zambia's development.