UNFPA's 2008 STATE OF WORLD POPULATION: Vignettes on Population, Reproductive Health, Gender & Culture by Jane Roberts: 12/01/2009 (MaximsNews Network)        

       UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 12 January 2009 -- Following up on the theme of the United Nations Population Fund's 2008 State of World Population: Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights, I have gathered these vignettes on Population, Reproductive Health, Gender and Culture in a ten day period: 

GAZA:    The UNFPA 2008 State of World Population report lends many paragraphs to reproductive health in conflict situations. Gaza is a perfect example of how women are particularly vulnerable.  

From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  “Antenatal services have been suspended, and while there are reported individual cases of pregnant women being transported to hospitals in ambulances for safe deliveries, UNFPA has grave concern that a large number of women are not accessing obstetric care.  Notably, there are no reports of deliveries being made by c-section as all operation rooms are used for war surgery.  Normally an average of 150-200 babies are born per day in Gaza, and an average of 17 percent of deliveries need to be made by c-section.”   

CHAD:    From the same UN Office came a report of 100 women marching against domestic violence in CHAD. Driven by poverty, gender inequality, and forced early marriage, violence against women is on the rise.  Genevieve Nakiri, head of a Chadian coalition of women’s groups, CELIF, told IRIN that violence against women is largely due to “the weight of socio-cultural norms in Chad.”  

No cultural values abide violence and oppression states UNFPA Senegalese representative Suzanne Maiga Konate.  UNFPA and NGO’s from around the world recently dedicated 16 days of activism against gender based violence.  

INDIA:   From the Washington Post came an intriguing report from India by Rama Lakshmi titled “Curbing Population Via Call Center”. India’s government-sponsored National Population Stabilization Fund opened a call center to provide reliable information about such socially taboo subjects as family planning, contraception, and reproductive health. It has been deluged with calls from rural areas.  One call was from a young newly married woman whose mother-in-law was putting pressure on the couple to have children right away. “Is there some contraception that I can use secretly and nobody else will get to know in the family?”  According to UNFPA, 200 million women worldwide desire but lack access to modern methods of contraception. In the not too distant future India’s population will surpass that of China. There is an educated prosperous upper class. Go see the recent film “Slumdog Millionaire” if you want to see how the other half lives in India.  

NIGERIA:   All Africa reported that Nigeria’s UNFPA Population and Development Officer, Mrs. Dolapo Dabiri, seemed to lament disregard for the link between population, poverty and development in that country.   Nigeria now has one half the population of the United States, i.e. 151 million, with a total fertility rate of 5.27 children per woman and a projected population of 289 million by 2050. Its rates of maternal, infant and child mortality are high and poverty is on the rise. The riches produced by its oil does not filter down to the people for education and health.    

PAKISTAN:   “Pakistan’s Lack of Family Planning May Pose Risks” reported the Jakarta Globe on 8  January. The statistics on Pakistan’s population are staggering with a present population of 167 million, a total fertility rate of 3.46 children, and a projected population of 292 million by 2050.  

Fully forty percent of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 25. There is an upper educated class of both women and men but the bulk of the population is ill educated, poor. Unemployment is high, women’s status is low, and hard line Islam can discourage reproductive health efforts. The Taliban is forbidding education for girls in certain regions just as it is in Afghanistan. UNFPA has a big challenge in Pakistan.  

KURDISH AREAS:   In late December 2008, Amit Paley wrote for the Washington Post Foreign Service about a young Kurdish girl whose mother tricked her into going next door for a “party” which turned out to be a circumcision. This story was sent to the list-serv of the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG) from the Population Reference Bureau. Female genital mutilation is relatively rare in Arab Iraq, but for some reason quite prevalent in Kurdish areas. Aisha Hameed, the mother, carried her sobbing child home and with a note of pride said: “This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember. We don’t know why we do it, but we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it.”  

Islam does not require it but one can see how the fight against FGM is an uphill battle for UNFPA and all involved.  

PHILIPPINES:   On 6 January I read from Manila in the Tajikistan News an article headlined “Poor women in Philippines yearn for birth control.” Floriza Bacli, with 10 children, was very grateful for her tubal ligation which cost $10.00. According to the UN Population Fund State of World Population Report, half of the Philippines’ 3.1 million pregnancies every year are unwanted or unintended, about one third of which end in abortion.  On average ten women in the Philippines die every day during birth.  

Blocks away from Floriza’s neighborhood stands the compound of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines. A banner at the entrance declares “pro-God, pro-Life, pro-Family, No to Death bills, No to RH (Reproductive Health) bills. The Catholic Church in the Philippines is vociferously opposing a bill in parliament which would enhance access to contraceptives and family planning. The Arroyo government seems to side with the Church. As in India, the Philippine’s poor slum-living children rummage through dumps for food and goods.  

THAILAND:   And again from IRIN on 31 December, 2008, comes a story of high maternal mortality in the south of Thailand. At the launch of UNFPA’s State of World Population in that country Banchong Withayametha said that progress in the south of the country would be difficult because of a Muslim insurgency, a belief by many Muslims that traditional home births were better for children, and the reluctance of  Muslim couples to practice contraception. And according to the Yala province’s public health office, all of these issues require cultural fluency and sensitivity.  

Several of these latter vignettes point to religions’ controversial roles.  Religion can be helpful or inimical to human rights.    

CONCLUSION:    Furnishing reproductive health information and services in a culturally sensitive way is the job which UNFPA assigns itself. From these vignettes collected in the last ten days, one can see that the task is hugely complicated. Yet, it must be done. The 2008 SWOP shows how complicated UNFPA’s task is of taking care of women in myriad places with differing cultural expectations. It deals with the nitty gritty. Described therein are many captivating conundrums. Read the whole report!

Labels: United Nations, U.N.,  GAZA, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kurdish areas, Thailand, Philippines, India, Chad, Thoraya Obaid, UNFPA, Jane Roberts, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA’s 2008 State of World Population Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender, and Human Rights, 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), MaximsNews Network,

 

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