| Strength
in Numbers: Networks and Alliances Networks and alliances of
civil-society organizations to implement the ICPD Programme of Action have become
increasingly important since Cairo. Networks of NGOs that advocate together can have a
stronger voice than can individual organizations. Thus, to advance Cairo goals, groups
have built broad alliances to overcome challenges to reproductive choice and freedom.
South-South and North-South coalitions of women’s health and rights organizations
have also kept reproductive health and rights on the international agenda.20
Since ICPD, the number of NGOs working on reproductive health and rights has grown, as
has the number of networks of civil society organizations. The 1998 UNFPA field inquiry
found that of those countries reporting cases where civil society took major action, NGOs
in about two thirds of the countries formed a coalition or a network under a common theme
of women’s rights, youth or reproductive health.
Countries in which coalitions have been formed include, among others, Botswana, Iran,
Kenya, Madagascar, Nepal, El Salvador, Panama, Uzbekistan and the Cook Islands. The
development of networks of NGOs to facilitate the implementation and follow-up of the ICPD
Programme of Action has been particularly strong in the Latin American countries of
Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.21
In Asia, a special initiative has taken shape through the collaborative efforts of the
Commission of the European Communities (EC), UNFPA and some 22 European NGOs and 66
national organizations and institutions. The EC/UNFPA Initiative for Reproductive Health
in Asia targets seven countries in South Asia and South-east Asia, to help provide quality
reproductive health services to hard-to-reach communities and address the reproductive
health needs of adolescents. Over $30 million will be spent during a three-year period
(1998-2001) through 43 separate projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. An important aspect of the EC/UNFPA Initiative for Reproductive
Health in Asia is capacity building of community- based organizations, and promoting
linkages among NGOs, and between NGOs and government services.
The Turkish Family Planning Association is developing a network of NGOs which will have
the capacity to advocate for the implementation of ICPD and Beijing action programmes
among national and local policy makers.22
In the Arab States, a UNFPA project to strengthen the capacity of NGOs improved
management capacity of around 162 NGOs in 18 countries. It also facilitated NGO networking
at the regional level and increased governmental and public awareness about the NGO sector
and its roles, problems and needs.23
The Argentinean experience shows how alliances between health professionals, community
members and churches can work in an environment with diverse cultural concerns.
Reproductive health services were introduced in 1998 without opposition of any kind in the
province of Buenos Aires, which has a third of the country’s population. A law
endorsing creation of a family planning programme for women was also the result of such
alliances.24
NGO networks have kept reproductive
health and rights
on national and international agendas.
Mexico’s Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE, the Information
Group on Reproductive Choice), founded in 1992, participates in several groups that were
created to help monitor the government’s actions to implement the ICPD Programme of
Action. In addition, the National Forum of Women and Population Policy, a non-governmental
network of over 70 institutions nationwide, is designing mechanisms for the promotion of
these accords.25
Since 1996, the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network has been
working in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua and Peru on monitoring ICPD implementation.
Additional countries are considering similar initiatives. This multi-country effort,
actively brokered and supported by UNFPA, embodies the basic principles of social
accountability contained in the Programme of Action. It is forging partnerships
(tripartite commissions, or other institutional arrangements) in which government, local
NGOs (particularly women’s groups, health advocates and national researchers) and
United Nations organizations and other donors will collaborate in regular and long-term
monitoring.
Their research has revealed uneven progress to date, including incomplete incorporation
of sexual and reproductive rights in laws and health services and the continued need to
improve the quality of reproductive health services. Of special concern, they have noted
the low impact of service and policy changes since Cairo on maternal mortality and the
continued role of unsafe abortion as a principal cause of maternal death.26
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