Welcome to another APA Update !

The resources available for us to do our work in the area of Reproductive Health are growing incredibly and this fortnights newsletter is largely dedicated to this body of work and resources that provide both policy and service level information – it also has a link to one of the best things I’ve seen in a while – the YouTube Stop the Silence – End the Stigma – Safe and Legal Abortion Campaign from Ireland.  If you haven’t had a chance to look at it as yet, and you have access to a computer with sound, it is well worth the time.  Also in the resources section, you will find a link to sign up for an online discussion on the use of female condoms in diverse settings.. In this online discussion, health professionals around the world will share their experiences with female condoms in diverse service delivery settings. This forum will be an opportunity to review the latest guidance on female condoms featured in Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers and exchange information and experiences with colleagues who are working to provide high-quality family planning services.

And if after all of that, you don’t manage to read all the way through to the Conferences and Events section of the newsletter, then you may not realise that early bird registration for the Reproductive Health in Emergencies Conference closes at the end of April.  Given the number of people who indicated an interest in APA exploring a migrant communities theme at this years’ conference, we thought that there might be some interest in this as well….  And on the Conference, for those of you who missed the update last fortnight, the dates for the 2008 APA conference are the week beginning the 5th of October and the conference will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  So add the date to your diary….

Until next time –

The APA Secretariat Team.

Washington, DC… Following an extensive year-long analysis, Population Action International (PAI) has committed to a multi-year, multi-disciplinary program to identify and explore the connections between population and global climate change (GCC). PAI’s research will focus on conducting in-depth analysis into these connections and illuminate how access to voluntary family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services can help enhance GCC mitigation and adaptation efforts. The goals are to gain a better understanding of the influence of demography on GCC and how FP/RH improves the well-being of those vulnerable to global climate change.

“Climate change is emerging as the most pressing issue of our century and cannot be ignored,” said Amy Coen, President/CEO of PAI. “The intersections between population issues and global climate change have received little attention and yet many of the world’s poorest countries will be disproportionately affected by environmental changes. Despite this fact, family planning and reproductive health programs have few proponents in the climate change scientific community. PAI feels it is our obligation to explore this complicated issue that will have a huge impact on the world’s most vulnerable citizens – women and their families.”

PAI has a long history as a pioneer in identifying the role population plays in the environment.  From the conservation of biodiversity to natural resource management to climate change, nearly every issue facing the global environment is connected to the people on the planet and how and where they live.

PAI’s work on climate change will be organized into five areas:

  1. Strengthening understanding of factors supporting community and individual resiliency and adaptation to the effects of climate change;

  2. Mapping regional vulnerability to illustrate areas where population pressures and points of rapid climate change coincide to pose serious threats to the future;

  3. Documenting the effects of different population growth scenarios on climate change projections;
  4. Updating the critical report Why Population Matters to address linkages between population dynamics and global issues; and
  5. Assessing resilience to climate change and threats to progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).


This work will contribute considerably to the debate around climate change, according to Coen: “With our research-communications-advocacy model, PAI can add to the evidence base, communicate findings and advocate for change among important audiences. In 2008, the topic of population must be inserted into the scientific and political discourse on climate change. Family planning and reproductive health are important interventions to bolster resilience and to contribute to reducing the impact of climate change on the planet’s most vulnerable citizens.”

To find out more about the important work of Population Action International and to keep up with this work as it unfolds, visit the PAI website at www.populationaction.org.

by Deepali Gaur Singh, RH Reality Check, Asia on April 18, 2008

Rape is perhaps the only crime that carries with it immense social implications for the victim -- making even the process of seeking justice an arduous fight not just against the aggressor but against the entire system and the society within which the judicial system functions. The concepts of feminine virtue and honor have turned entrenched beliefs into unwritten codes of conduct. It takes an extremely brave woman not just to fight for justice in the face of threats from the rapist but also go against what are believed to be the basic tenets of a woman's existence. Here in India, it is not uncommon to hear that "[a woman's] virtue once lost can never be retrieved." So the underlying caution is that even if rape is a crime, it is foolishness for women to report it and expose themselves again.

To read the full text of the article goto RH Reality Check. 

By Barbara Kiviat

As microfinance moves more and more into the mainstream of the banking world, is some of its original mission getting lost in the shuffle? That's the implication of a landmark study released on Thursday by Women's World Banking (WWB), a network of microfinance institutions in 29 countries. The study examined what happened at 27 outfits as they morphed from non-governmental (typically not-for-profit) organizations into regulated financial institutions, and found that they often end up lending to a smaller percentage of women — the very people they are often started to help……But a more troubling finding of the study was the steep drop-off in the percentage of female clients in the years following transformation. Over five years, the percentage of clients who were women moved from an average of 88% to 60%. That is concerning not only because many institutions start out with the goal of serving female entrepreneurs, but also because women are much less likely than men to spend business gains on consumable goods like TV sets, and more likely to pay for health care and education for their children — investments that can help further lift their families out of the cycle of poverty.

To read the full story, follow this link to TIME Magazine

Yes. The aid agenda includes women.

Today, the question is about matching the talk about recognising the need for financing for gender equality with actual aid and budget allocations for women’s empowerment by governments, international development agencies, and donors. Within this context of limited funding for women, where the gender budget goes to becomes even more important.

ICT4D is one area that development aid prioritised in recent years. The influx of aid for ICT4D was aimed at advancing gender equality by financing new information and communication technologies or new ICTs for women’s empowerment.

The introduction of new ICTs into the gender and development framework is based on the notion that access and effective use of these technologies will lead to women’s empowerment and development for all. Though this ICT-centric framework for development has been the subject of debates and discussions, development aid fuelled many ICT-focused community projects. The focus was to equip women and girls with the information, skills, and technology needed to ensure their full participation in the “information society”.

But is ICT4D what grassroots women need on the ground?

Isis International together with Aalochana (India), CMDI (Thailand), Femlink Pacific (Fiji), and Help Resources (Papua New Guinea) conducted a three-year study to interrogate the ICT-centric development framework. With the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Isis and its country partners examined how intermediary groups use new ICTs and traditional communication tools for grassroots women’s empowerment in India, Philippines, Thailand, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. So are new ICTs perceived as more effective and more empowering compared to traditional communication tools?

No. Empirical evidence from 5 Asia-Pacific countries shows that traditional communication tools like radio, theatre, and film are still the most effective and empowering tools for grassroots women.

Oral communication or direct, two-way, face-to-face interaction was clearly the most empowering way of sharing information between intermediary groups and grassroots women. The utility, accessibility and effectiveness of traditional communication tools in development work for grassroots women’s empowerment were repeatedly observed and substantiated by the 81 intermediary groups interviewed and validated by focus group discussions with four target communities of grassroots women. Film or video was the top communication tool used followed by radio and popular theatre. Radio was the most accessible. Radio, theatre, and film were consistently the most effective, along with print media for the Pacific countries. Among the new ICTs, only the cellular phone was effective and only for the Philippines.

New ICTs, namely the internet, computer, and the cellular phone, were reported to be generally inaccessible, ineffective, and not empowering for grassroots women across the 5 countries. Only the computer was being utilised with relative frequency primarily for visual presentations when meeting with communities face-to-face. Though intermediary groups found the internet empowering for themselves, particularly for international, regional, and local advocacy and networking; the internet was not empowering for the grassroots women they served. In interacting with communities, majority continue to rely on traditional communication tools such as street theatre, radio, and film. As such, traditional communication tools are still the primary vehicle for grassroots women’s empowerment in these 5 Asia-Pacific countries. These are the modes of communication utilised by the grassroots women themselves in their everyday realities.

So why is the aid agenda prioritising ICTs over traditional communication tools?

The advent of new ICTs and the phenomenon referred to as the “information society” pushed traditional communication tools as a thing of the past. The ICT4D model privileged new ICTs over traditional communication tools. However, the research findings clearly show that traditional communication tools are still very much needed in the present and future. There is a need to finance development projects using traditional communication tools alongside new ICTs. There is a need for development funds to support street theatre, alternative films, and community radio which are of equal or at times greater importance to ICT projects. There is a need for financial aid in support of face-to-face communication in empowering grassroots women and programmes that can facilitate regular interaction with communities rather than mediation through new ICTs.

There is a policy and practice divide in financing for gender equality. And if aid is to empower women on the ground, it needs to start listening to women on the ground.

Underlying the effectiveness and empowering potential of traditional communication tools is the centrality of grassroots women in determining the intermediary group’s choice of communication tool, and consequently choice of communication strategy. It is the focus on grassroots women and what is appropriate, suitable, and yes, empowering from their own perspective and experience that leads to empowerment. Development financing for grassroots women’s empowerment cannot be detached from what is happening on the ground. Instead, states, international development agencies, and donors must ensure that the aid agenda is based on women’s realities and community practices.

PC4D or People’s Communications for Development is our alternative model. For the aid agenda to truly be empowering, it must remain rooted in the practices of women, communities, and peoples on the ground.

The Countdown to 2015 is a global partnership that calls for renewed action and accountability in achieving health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially MDGs 4 and 5, which mandate steep reductions in under-five and maternal mortality. Despite significant gains, much more must be done to meet the 2015 deadline.

To view the UNICEF Photo Essay, follow this link here.

2005: Countdown to 2015: Tracking progress in child survival

The first Countdown to 2015 Conference and Report launch were held in London in December 2005 and focussed on child survival. Coverage reports were available for 60 countries accounting for 95% of child mortality.  To download a full copy of this report, follow this link here to the Countdown 2015 website. 

Register for free at:  http://my.ibpinitiative.org/public/femalecondom/

In this online discussion, health professionals around the world will share their experiences with female condoms in diverse service delivery settings. This forum will be an opportunity to review the latest guidance on female condoms featured in Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers and exchange information and experiences with colleagues who are working to provide high-quality family planning services.

The discussion will be guided by the interest of the participants. Topics will include integration of female condoms into family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, opportunities for male involvement, strategies for encouraging commitment and participation of governments, donor agencies and civil society in female condom programming, as well as practical guidance related to female condom use and counseling. A variety of tools and resources on female condoms will be available for easy access in the online Resource Library.

The Global Handbook was prepared through a unique collaboration between Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Health Organization (WHO), and over 30 organizations around the world.

This online discussion is sponsored by PATH, CHANGE and the INFO Project, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs in collaboration with the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) in Reproductive Health Initiative and WHO.