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:
Source: Business Ghana
The late termination of pregnancies displaying severe foetal anomalies is both an ethically and morally challenging dilemma. The outbreak of the mosquito born Zika virus in South America last year is a good example of this dilemma faced by under resourced countries. What started out as a question about containment and the causal relationship between the Zika virus and microcephaly, quickly escalated into an issue about access to reproductive health and women's right to abortion.
Source: The Herald
Last year many women's rights activists and the general populace celebrated the legal ban of child marriages.
Source: Daily Nation
The day of a child's birth should be a day filled with joy, but for many Kenyans, it is a day of fear.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
SOUTHERN African Development Community (SADC) member states have been urged to join hands to ensure accessing to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) services a human right not a privilege bestowed on a few.
Source: Daily Trust
Marie Stopes Nigeria said it is introducing new digital capabilities into its customer and beneficiaries' interactions in Nigeria.
Source: Ekkelsia
Sexual and reproductive health services must be not just "youth-friendly" but also “male- and female-friendly" and "youth participatory" so that young men and women gain access to the information and services they need and want, agreed adolescents who attended a workshop in Lomé, Togo on 24-25 March.
Source: The Daily Vox
There are often myths and misconceptions about abortion that scare women who are already in a vulnerable situation.
Source: News Ghana
Ms Bernice Sam, a lawyer and gender advocate, touched by dwindling women’s reproductive rights and high maternal deaths largely caused by socio-cultural and religious factors, has called for ‘new paradigm shift’ to safeguard mothers’ rights.
Source: Open Democracy
In a cynical ploy, conservative religious groups based in the Global North now frame reproductive rights advocacy in the Global South as the neocolonialist imposition of a uniquely western value system.
Source:Times Live
The shocking incident of a pregnant woman who apparently died outside a Cameroonian hospital is being investigated by the West African country's government.
Source: The Guardian
Ministry of health in country off west Africa says baby was born to woman not among those being monitored for virus.