UNFPA's Life Cycle Approach
Reproductive health is a lifetime concern for
both women and men, from infancy to old age. UNFPA supports programming
tailored to the different challenges they face at different times
in life.
In many cultures, the discrimination against girls
and women that begins in infancy can determine the trajectory of
their lives. The important issues of education and appropriate health
care arise in childhood and adolescence. These continue to be issues
in the reproductive years, along with family planning, sexually
transmitted diseases and reproductive tract infections, adequate
nutrition and care in pregnancy, and the social status of women
and concerns about cervical and breast cancer.
Male attitudes towards gender and sexual relations
arise in boyhood, when they are often set for life. Men need early
socialization in concepts of sexual responsibility and ongoing education
and support in order to experience full partnership in satisfying
sexual relationships and family life.
Critical Messages for Different Life Stages
In its advocacy and programming, UNFPA focuses
on key messages that can empower both women and men at different
stages of their lives.
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Inform and empower girls to delay pregnancy
until they are physically and emotionally mature.
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Inspire and motivate boys and men to be sexually
responsible partners and value daughters equally as sons.
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Encourage governments to take responsibility
for the human catastrophe of orphans and other children who
live in the streets.
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Reorient health education and services to meet the diverse
needs of adolescents. Integrated reproductive health education and services
for young people should include family planning information,
and counselling on gender relations, STDs and HIV/AIDS, sexual
abuse and reproductive health.
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Ensure that health care programmes and providers' attitudes
allow for adolescents' access to the services and information
they need.
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Support efforts to eradicate female genital cutting and other
harmful practices, including early or forced marriage, sexual
abuse, and trafficking of adolescents
for forced labour, marriage or commercial sex.
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Socialize and motivate boys and young men to show respect and
responsibility in sexual relations.
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Improve communication between men and women
on issues of sexuality and reproductive health, and the understanding
of their joint responsibilities, so that they are equal partners
in public and private life.
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Enable women to exercise their right to control
their own fertility and their right to make decisions concerning
reproduction, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.
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Improve the quality and availability of reproductive
health services and barriers to access.
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Make emergency obstetric care available to
all women who experience complications in their pregnancies.
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Encourage men's responsibility for sexual
and reproductive behaviour and increase male participation in
family planning.
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Reorient and strengthen health care services to better meet
the needs of older women.
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Support outreach by women's NGOs to help older women in the
community to better understand the importance of girls' education,
reproductive rights and sexual health so that they may become
effective transmitters of this knowledge.
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Develop strategies to better meet needs of the elderly for
food, water, shelter, social and legal services and health care.
UNFPA integrates the empowerment of women into
a wide range of programming.
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