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PRESS
RELEASE
United Nations Population
Fund
Contact in New York:
Alex Marshall
Fax: (212)
557-6416
Experts Consider Ways
to Improve
Reproductive Health
Services
KAMPALA, Uganda, 23 June--The design of quality
sexual and reproductive health services was the focus on day two of
the expert meeting here on reproductive rights and the
implementation of reproductive health programmes. Presentations
addressed the implementation of feasible standards of care; the
broadening of services within existing health systems; reducing
maternal mortality; and programme reform efforts in Bangladesh and
India.
Fifty experts from around the world are attending the Expert
Round-table Meeting on Ensuring Reproductive Rights and Implementing
Sexual and Reproductive Health Programmes, Including Women's
Empowerment, Male Involvement and Human Rights. The UNFPA-organized
meeting at the International Conference Centre here is part of
ICPD+5, a year-long evaluation of progress in the five years since
the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in
Cairo.
For the implementation of feasible standards of care in India,
the Philippines and Zambia, Saumya Rama Rao, an expert from the
Population Council, recommended the development of clear protocols,
the training of health care workers, the provision of supportive
supervision and appropriate evaluation.
Aspects of broadening of services were addressed by Mohammed
Nizamuddin, Director of UNFPA's Technical and Policy Division.
Adrienne Germain, president of the New York-based International
Women's Health Coalition, outlined the process that has been under
way for two years to develop a new national health and population
policy for Bangladesh. The effort, backed by international donors,
aims to integrate the now-separate family planning and health
sectors and to adopt a participatory approach. This will require
better coordination and training, and changes in job descriptions
and performance measures. "Governments, donors and NGOs are
convinced this is the only way forward," she said.
Sharad Iyengar, Executive Director of Action Research and
Training for Health (ARTH), reported on recent policy and programme
changes in India since the ICPD. India's reproductive health and
rights situation mirrors its wide demographic diversity,
sociocultural influences and the various capacities of civil
institutions, he said. But one common thread is the need to
translate policy changes into concrete, sustainable actions. He
cited decentralization measures and the abolition in 1995 of family
planning targets and quotas. This was done without creating a
demand-based alternative to the top-down approach, and contraceptive
acceptance declined. In response, there was pressure to return to
past methods. As a result, well-intentioned attempts to assess unmet
need for contraception turned into something that "looked, felt and
smelled like targets," he said.
The presentations of technical papers were followed by
discussions.
Participants later broke into four working groups for more
detailed deliberations that will lead to recommendations on key
future actions.
Their themes are: policies for sexual and reproductive health;
designing quality sexual and reproductive health services; access to
services; and creating the conditions for implementing sexual and
reproductive health and rights.
Wednesday, the round table's third day, will witness the
presentation of papers on gender-based violence, particularly on
female genital mutilation (FGM) in Uganda and the role of the health
and education sectors in combating violence in Poland. A theme for
that day will be access to reproductive and sexual heath and family
planning services.
According to Sunetra Puri, the meeting's rapporteur, the experts
are making progress in identifying successful strategies that have
emerged since the ICPD, constraints and further action needed.
"This is one of the most important of the round tables because it
deals with the essence of the whole Cairo agenda: sexual and
reproductive health and rights. The quality of the people who are
here, and their commitment to see the Cairo agenda go forward, make
me believe that the recommendations which come out of the round
table will form some of the priorities in the [United Nations]
Secretary-General's paper to the General Assembly," she said,
referring to the report that will be presented to a special session
of the assembly on ICPD+5, in June-July 1999. |