Population Action Blog

The U.N. Men's Club

2010-03-11T17:18:36Z

By Suzanne Ehlers and Elizabeth Becker

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions.

]]> The group is tasked with investigating potential sources of revenue to support developing countries in their efforts to cope with the impacts of climate change and the shift to low-carbon development pathways. The Copenhagen negotiations in December called for $30 billion in climate financing for 2010 to 2012, ramping up to $100 billion annually by 2020.

The secretary-general's choices for the advisory group will bring intellectual energy and political gravitas. The group is chaired by U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. It includes two additional heads of state, ministers of finance, and leaders of central banks. Taking part are financier and philanthropist George Soros and economist Sir Nicholas Stern. It includes equal representation between industrialized countries and developing countries (though only two smaller, highly vulnerable developing countries). But what it does not include at all is women.

Leaving women out is unfortunate and reflects a persistent bias in climate change decision-making roles. It is also unwise given the ultimate objective of the advisory group. This elite club will frame and shape climate change financial flows to the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. We know that women are disproportionately represented among both of these groups and are often on the front lines of climate change. In developing countries, because of their role as primary providers of food, water, and fuel for their families, women are both the most affected by climate change and a pivotal force for building responses to direct climate impacts. We also know that women are frequently the decision-makers about household consumption, and represent an increasing share of wealth around the world.

By leaving their voices out of the critical tasks before this advisory group, the secretary-general is closing out opportunities to explore the widest possible range of creative and innovative sources of revenue on the scale that is needed to address climate change.

The secretary-general himself has noted the need to include women in all aspects of decision-making on climate change. In a speech last September, he called on member states "to foster an environment where women are key decision makers on climate change, and play an equally central role in carrying out these decisions...We must do more to give greater say to women in addressing the climate challenge." So why have they been ignored yet again?

The secretary-general and the co-chairs of the advisory group can correct this by expanding the membership of the group to include meaningful representation of female officials before the group's first meeting in London at the end of the month.

It is impossible to believe that the secretary-general couldn't find any women with expertise to participate. On today, International Women's Day, we hope the secretary-general reconsiders the membership of this important group.

Motherhood, It's Complicated

2010-02-18T21:59:33Z

Originally posted on the Huffington Post

A colleague on maternity leave recently sent an e-mail saying what an incredible experience pregnancy is and how she can't help thinking of the millions of women who go through it without the support we take for granted in the U.S. "Here I am focusing on tummy time and music groups; talk about perspective when you consider that more than half a million women die every year during pregnancy and childbirth because they don't have access to the simplest of health services and supplies." ]]> For ten years Population Action International (PAI) has been at the forefront of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, a global partnership working to ensure that all people in low- and middle-income countries can access and use affordable, high-quality supplies to meet their reproductive health needs. And while PAI has long recognized the role of family planning in improving maternal health, a specific focus on maternal health supplies emerged in 2009, when PAI partnered with the Maternal Health Task Force. The Task Force asked us to explore who was taking up the issue of maternal health supplies and if PAI could share lessons learned from our reproductive health supplies experience.

Our maternal health research is currently underway, starting with two country case studies in Bangladesh and Uganda. What we have already learned is humbling:

Unlike family planning, there is very little direct donor funding for maternal health supplies. The shift to broader health sector and direct budget support, as well as financing from national governments' own resources, means maternal health issues can fall prey to other priorities in a budget process.
Women and their families are often expected to pay out of pocket for essential maternal health medicines, such as oxytocin for post-partum hemorrhage, even when government facilities are supposed to provide free health care. This adds another obstacle for poor women in efforts to ensure safe delivery.
No coordinated system exists for maternal health supplies in many countries and they are often not integrated into supply systems for other drugs, such as for family planning or newborn and child health.
Furthermore, human resource issues--having staff positions filled, ensuring providers are trained, and particularly being able to improve maternal health at the community level for the women who deliver at home--are a tremendous challenge. Ensuring sufficient access to supplies alone is not enough when a health system is broken.

It is no wonder that Millennium Development Goal 5--improving maternal health--is the most off track of all the millennium development goals.

These early findings remind me of the truth of my colleague's e-mail--how much we take for granted. I am expecting my second child in June and it is not lost on me that access to family planning services and supplies has allowed me to delay childbearing until desired, and afforded our family the chance for proper birth spacing. It's more than the miracle of the pill. It's the fact that I can find the pill, afford it, and switch between brands to find one that suits me best. These facts form part of my daily motivation to mentally and emotionally connect to the real lives of the women and families. Over the long term, we at PAI are looking to achieve the Millennium Development Goal on maternal health, and adequate supplies are critical for this to happen.

Click here to support PAI's work on maternal health supplies.

Amid Blizzards, Protests, and Lock-downs, Population Gets Stunning Moments in the Sun in Copenhagen

2009-12-17T23:19:49Z

Originally published on the New Security Beat

The second week of negotiations here in Copenhagen has been marked by dramatic events, as the deadline for a new global agreement to address climate change approaches.

Blocs of negotiators from developing countries have walked out, and returned. Thousands of NGO representatives who have been denied access to the proceedings are shivering in the cold. Observers inside the Bella Center have staged sit-ins. And yet slivers of hope remain for some form of a global deal that is fair, ambitious, and binding as negotiators prepare for the arrival of more than 100 heads of state on Friday.
]]> Amid this chaos, there is encouraging evidence that voices of those advocating for increased attention to the role of population and reproductive health and rights in climate change responses are being heard.

This afternoon, in a side event organized by Iceland on "Women as Agents of Change," Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tørnæs announced new funding for the United Nations Population Fund in the amount of $5.9 million, stating:

"The combination of climate change and high population growth adds to the pressure on resources in many developing countries. Population growth puts tremendous pressure on a sustainable management of natural resources, which indicates an indirect link between climate change and women's sexual and reproductive health and rights...More than 200 million women in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy, but do not have access to modern contraception. It is crucial that we accelerate our efforts to meet these unmet needs."

At a closed-door meeting yesterday, more than 50 members of parliament (MPs) from developed and developing countries discussed the role of voluntary family planning programs in reducing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Hosted by the Population and Climate Change Alliance, a collective including Population Action International (PAI) and other NGOs working together to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights as critical components of climate change responses, the event encouraged informal, frank discussions among MPs about the opportunities to bring population into the Copenhagen conference.

Earlier in the week, the issue of reproductive health got a worthy boost during a high-level panel marking the close of "Development and Climate Days," a parallel conference outside the negotiating venue. President Nasheed of Maldives, Tanzania's Minister for Environment Batilda Burian, and Kenya's Minister for Water and Irrigation Charity Kaluki Ngilu, and other panelists identified what the most vulnerable countries need out of Copenhagen to help them adapt to climate change. Minister Ngilu unequivocally stated that reproductive health should be central to development and climate change efforts in these countries. In Kenya, where the population has grown rapidly, she asserted that reproductive health should be a key strategy to help cope with development challenges, including climate change, by ensuring that "women are empowered and have control of their health needs, including desired family sizes."

Nobel Laureate and chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Kumar Pachauri also recognized the importance of reproductive health. At a United Nations Foundation event on UNFPA's State of the World report, "Facing a changing world: women, population and climate," Pachauri and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, noted that issues of gender and population are back on the global agenda. Robinson pointed out that the report's focus on women's lives will be an important stepping stone in 2010.

Pachauri remarked that issues of population and consumption are "critical to actions related to global greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation" and that the intersection of these issues affects both industrialized and developing countries. Unfair distribution and aggregate levels of consumption leave the world's poor vulnerable, he said, and resources for health care, education, and social services should be mobilized to address inequities and fertility.

Looking forward, Pachauri called on countries to examine issues of population and consumption, provided that industrialized leaders demonstrate the necessary global leadership at COP-15 and other forums.

While the outcome from these two weeks of negotiations remains foggy, it has become eminently clear that issues of population, reproductive health, family planning, and gender equity have gained a strong foothold in discussions on the global response to climate change. Despite the hours we have spent shivering in the cold, our voices are resonating in the halls of the Bella Center, and will continue to call for comprehensive solutions in Copenhagen and beyond.

Kathleen Mogelgaard is senior program manager for population and climate change at Population Action International (PAI). Read more about PAI's work around Copenhagen.

Let the Human Face of Climate Change Emerge in Copenhagen

2009-12-14T20:48:38Z

As the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convenes in Copenhagen for its 15th meeting, all eyes are on targets to reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, the irony of climate change is that people in countries that have had the least to do with growing emissions are likely to experience the greatest difficulties in adapting to the impacts of climate change. Discussions and agreements in Copenhagen will include how best to plan for and fund long term adaptation strategies for countries affected by changes in climate.

]]> Experience with short term adaptation plans, embodied in National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) developed over the past decade, offers lessons to the negotiators and shows that the world needs a new paradigm for addressing adaptation and development that puts people at the core. Under a 2001 agreement at the 7th meeting of the COP of the UNFCCC, forty-nine least developed countries and small island states have been eligible to develop NAPAs, which are meant to address immediate and pressing adaptation issues. Nearly a decade later, most NAPAs have been prepared, but few projects have started. Funding for NAPAs by the international community is woefully inadequate. Furthermore, the projects do not reflect the complexity of people's lives, nor the need to address human and social capital to help make people more resilient to changes in their environments that are resulting from climate change. The NAPA process was designed to be participatory, yet the inclusion of women in the process, let alone young people, was lacking in most countries. The social sectors were underrepresented to say the least. The NAPA process in most countries was squarely housed in ministries of meteorology and environment, with predictable outcomes.

NAPAs mostly propose single sector projects that are in 12 categories given by the UNFCCC. Half of the projects fall into three sectors - food security, terrestrial ecosystems and water resources. Those sectors are clearly critical, but so are social sectors, including health and education to promote human capital and community participation to promote social capital. The only social sector under the UNFCCC architecture is health and that is among the least well represented sectors. Only 7 percent of projects proposed through NAPAs are in the health sector. Education, particularly girl's education, which is widely understood to improve people's lives, is not a sector under the UNFCCC. Thirty-seven of 41 prepared NAPAs note population pressure as exacerbating the effects of climate change, yet there are no projects underway to promote family planning, let along women's rights and empowerment or education which could help bolster resilience and ameliorate population pressure and safeguard the most vulnerable from the adverse impacts of climate change.

NAPAs should be linked with relevant national strategies- a process that requires the collaboration and input of a wide range of policy stakeholders. Unfortunately, in most countries, a lack of effective coordination between ministries has meant that the majority of NAPAs were developed without linking to broader national priorities. Only a quarter of NAPAs, for example, link to national development strategies. Improving coordination around adaptation at the national and global levels to ensure a set of policies that comprehensively address the needs and rights of the most vulnerable individuals, remains a pressing issue.

As the world meets to decide how to move forward on climate change, getting adaptation planning and funding right is critical. We must examine the global and national architecture to make sure that considerations to improve people's lives form the basis for any plans, short or long-term, to address the complexity of adaptation. Development and adaptation priorities, including links with reaching the Millennium Development Goals, need to be more closely linked in policies and programs. This includes community-based, participatory approaches to providing education, expanding livelihoods, improving health, giving couples the means to have the number of children they want to have, and empowering women. It also means providing developing countries with adequate, predictable funds that are additive to already existing development dollars to promote this coordination. Those are proven development strategies that, in the long run, will help people cope with what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called the greatest challenge facing humanity.

Climate Change, Family Planning and Reproductive Health

2009-12-09T20:40:01Z

As countries negotiate climate change solutions in Copenhagen, family planning and reproductive health should be among the adaption strategies on the table. At the same time, the world should not shy away from addressing population as a factor related to carbon emissions. Over 200 million women around the world are having more children than they say they want to have, partly because they do not have access to contraception. Giving women the means to have the number of children they prefer will help them and their families prosper, which is good for women, for the environment and for climate change.

]]> country case study that details these effects on the ground in Ethiopia.

Women suffer the most from the effects of climate change - and women are also the best agents of change. With food shortages, they have to find ways to feed their families. As water becomes scarcer, women have to travel longer distances to find it. Faced with their own health issues, including the possibility of unintended pregnancy women have to care for their children, who are highly susceptible to illnesses related to rising temperatures. Most importantly, women express the need for family planning. In the Ethiopia study, one young woman from the Southern Region said, "... if a family has limited children, it will have enough land for its kids and hence we can protect the forests." A new UNFPA report, Women, Population and Climate Change shows that women are the earth's best stewards and they should be more involved in finding solutions to climate change in their families, communities, nations and in global fora.

Rapid population growth rates are inhibiting countries from building resilience through strengthening human capital - through education, health, and providing livelihoods. 37 of the existing 41 National Adaptation Programmes of Action prepared by least developed countries identify population pressure as a factor exacerbating the effects of climate change. The contribution of rights-based, voluntary family planning and reproductive health is clear, yet none of the 41 countries includes a funded project that includes family planning. That is a huge missed opportunity to improve the lives of women, families and communities and to build resilience to climate change.

Investments in voluntary family planning and girl's education have also been shown to be cost effective ways to reduce carbon emissions - in addition to being critical for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Recent analysis by the Futures Group shows that for every dollar invested in family planning, there would be a return of between $2 and $7 related to five MDGs (education, child survival, maternal health, malaria and water/sanitation).

Whether the world's population reaches the United Nation Population Division's "low variant projection" of 8.0 billion in 2050 rather than the high estimate of 10.5 billion will make a difference to carbon emissions - and people's ability to cope with climate change. One study suggests that if the low variant population projection for 2050 is achieved, it could result in one to two billion fewer tons of carbon emissions than from the medium-growth scenario of 9 billion people. Built into the UN's population projections is the assumption of strong family planning programs, which are not a reality in much of the developing world. Even in the United States, which has the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, half of all pregnancies are unintended.

Strengthening voluntary family planning programs that respect the rights of women, along with education and livelihoods programs, and integrating them with projects designed to address food insecurity and water scarcity will be critical moving forward in finding solutions to climate change. A promising model for adaptation exists through a community-based integrated "PHE" approach that integrates population, health and environment interventions. Linking clean technological advances with the community-based adaptation approaches, that include access to family planning and reproductive health, will enhance people's ability to cope with the changes in climate they are already experiencing. Reaching 2050 with 8 billion people on the planet rather than 10.5 billion is also important for addressing climate change.

The Human Faces of Climate Change in Ethiopia

2009-12-04T22:16:29Z

Originally published on RH Reality Check

The old adage, think globally and act locally, should be heeded in discussing solutions to climate change. While changes in industrialized country consumption patterns and technological solutions are needed to help stop the flow of dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and rendering the planet hotter and hotter, they will be insufficient to address the other side of climate change - helping the most vulnerable people adapt to its effects. Adaptation requires community-based and integrated approaches to help people cope. Involving communities and devising solutions based on local environmental and social conditions is the only sustainable approach.

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The human face of climate change is apparent throughout the world, and the Wichi Wetlands watershed in southwestern Ethiopia is no exception. A headwater of the Nile, the watershed has more than local importance. Protecting wetlands and making them healthier is not only good for individuals, families and communities, it's good for the climate too, since wetlands absorb more carbon than forests and are considered more sustainable as carbon sinks.

The Ethio Wetlands Natural Resource Association (EWNRA) began working in the watershed through a wetlands conservation project. In response to people's needs, activities under EWRNA have expanded to include health promotion and also to deal with a critical issue facing farmers in the area - dwindling land holdings due to a succession of generations of large families. The Wichi Wetlands Project works in collaboration with the local government, a relationship described by one official as close as "water and life." This integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Project provides a good model for community-based adaptation strategies. In addition to environmental protection, health promotion and provision of family planning information and services, the project includes components addressing farming practices, agro-forestry, potable water cleaner cooking facilities, and micro-credit for women.

One farmer, 44 year old Gezaghun Gudeta, has already experienced the benefits of the program. In just a few years his fields have become a model in his kebele. Growing a new composite maize seed that he can both sell to the government and replant interspersed with grasses to hold the soil and capture water, his farm has greatly increased its yield - and his income. Organic composting has also boosted this agricultural output. Gezaghun, whose father also farmed this land, has seen changes in the local climate, most notably rising temperatures. Reversing the erosion of his farmland and restoring the wetlands is giving him a head start on adapting to these changes.

Protecting the wetlands is also having positive health effects on the communities - particularly on the lives of women. In addition to cook stoves that use less wood and produce less smoke, potable water is captured through community water pumps. This frees up time that women spent collecting water, which put them at risk of harm when traveling the long distances needed. In addition, the Tulube health center reported that while parasitic infections were the number one reason people sought care in 1998, today they have moved down to number six.

The residents are also planning their families through use of contraception. Couples like Zenhun and his wife Aster in Tulube are using the contraceptive Depo Provera and are happy with the three children they have. "We can educate and feed them well." They wonder why the government -and non-governmental organizations - has not been more proactive in ensuring access to family planning, noting the pressure they face providing for their children on increasingly small farm plots. Read more stories like Zenhun and Aster's in PAI's upcoming report, "Linking Population, Fertility and Family Planning with
Adaptation to Climate Change: Views from Ethiopia," released in early December.

Rapid population growth, resulting partly from lack of access to contraceptives, is straining family and community resources. Young people in the Wichi catchment area want help through formal education and life skills training. Schools, which often run double shifts lack adequate facilities and books for students. Education is the cornerstone of building human capital, and can empower girls and women especially to reshape their own lives and the lives of their children and families. Girl's education goes hand in hand with access to contraception to help women take control of their own fertility.

The world's current approach to climate change adaptation needs a dose of the social sciences to focus a lens on the human face of climate change. In addition to technology, adaptation approaches require attention to all aspects of people's lives through community-based integrated strategies. Current "PHE" - population, health and environment - projects offer a promising model. In Ethiopia, the Consortium for the Integration of PHE, was established to strengthen these projects. In addition to hydropower and early warning systems, among other technological advances, community social capital needs to be enhanced- including meeting the needs of youth. Individual resilience will be enhanced by strengthening human capital through education, health, family planning and empowerment. The people of Ethiopia's Wichi Wetlands are a model of how adaptation can work.

Pakistan's Demographic Challenge Is Not Just Economic

2009-11-16T19:11:38Z

Originally published in The New Security Beat

In a meeting with business leaders in Lahore in late October, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pointedly warned of the potential economic impacts of Pakistan's rapidly growing population: "There has to be...in any plan for your own economic future, a hard look at where you're going to get the resources to meet these needs. You do have somewhere between 170 and 180 million people. Your population is projected to be about 300 million as the current birth rates, which are among the highest in the world, continue," she said.

]]> Pakistan is ranked 141 (out of 182 countries) in the Human Development Index. High rates of unemployment are compounded by low levels of education and human capital. Clinton noted that Pakistani women are more vulnerable to poverty; only 40 percent are literate, compared to 68 percent of men.

The Secretary's emphasis on the need to provide adequate education, jobs, and resources to motivate economic growth and improve well-being is welcome. But demography also has important political consequences. U.S. policymakers and the Pakistani government should consider the impact of population dynamics on the country's intensifying instability.

As Pakistan's population grows rapidly, it is maintaining a very young age structure: in 2005, two-thirds of its population was younger than age 30. Research by Population Action International has shown that countries with very young age structures are three times as likely to experience outbreaks of civil conflict than those with a more balanced age distribution.

The members of a "youth bulge" are not inherently dangerous, but when governments are unable to foster employment opportunities or the prospects of stability, a young age structure can serve to exacerbate the risks of conflict, as recently noted by John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, in a speech on "A New Approach to Safeguarding Americans."

As Secretary Clinton and her colleagues consider the complex barriers to achieving peace and stability for Pakistan's people, their humanitarian and development strategies should include demographic issues. When couples are able to choose the number and timing of their children, very young age structures like Pakistan's, can change.

Family planning and reproductive health services are fundamental human rights, but remain out of reach for many in Pakistan, where one-quarter of all married women (and 31 percent of the poorest) have an unmet need for family planning.

Greater access to family planning would lower fertility rates and increase the share of working-age adults in the population. In this transition, countries can harness the "demographic dividend"--a change that could turn Pakistan's age structure into an economic opportunity.

However, funding from the United States--the world's largest single donor for international family planning--has declined by one-third over the past 15 years. The foreign assistance funding priorities of the Obama administration should reflect this recognition of the linkages between population, development, and stability.

By addressing the high unmet need for family planning and reproductive health services of women in countries like Pakistan, the United States could help to create a more balanced age structure in future generations--and promote stability at the same time.

Elizabeth Leahy Madsen is a research associate at Population Action International (PAI). She is the primary author of the 2007 PAI report The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World..

Hope in Dialogue: Thoughts on the 5th Asia and Pacific Conference

2009-10-20T21:34:36Z

by Suzanne Ehlers

The 5th Asia and Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR) is currently underway in Beijing, China. Today, I am moderating a session co-hosted by the Asia Pacific Alliance (APA) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The session, titled Meet the Donors, explored resource mobilization and Millennium Development Goal 5 (improving maternal health) through the lens of a theme raised in the day's opening sessions: In a climate of continuing financial gloom, how is it that an intervention as cost effective as family planning and reproductive health is still having difficulty mobilizing adequate resources?

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Yet those of us in the sexual and reproductive health and rights community can identify long-time donors, both public and private, who have pushed the limits of their supportive capacity. At the national level, indigenous advocacy partners, service providers, and countless champions within national governments will go to bat for the issue as often as they are asked. They have seen the famous RAPID models; they have not missed the analysis that shows the undeniable return that one gets from investing in the reproductive health needs of women and their families.

What was clear from the donor roundtable, and from subsequent sessions that have addressed climate change, integrating reproductive health and HIV, and other nexus issues, is that the Asia Pacific region, like most of the world, understands the urgency of our predicament and is willing to explore new and alternative paradigms. Some guideposts exist, as suggested by Dr. Shiva Kumar on UNICEF India, including equity, the full protection and promotion of human rights (including sexual and reproductive rights), democracy, and the preeminence of women's experience and leadership. These should be easy enough to get behind they are principles that have guided our work as a community since at least Cairo in 1994, and some would even argue many years before Cairo.

Population Action International has long believed in the value of dialogue, and in fact we have dedicated core resources over many decades to convening and facilitating such exchange. A conference such as the 5th APCRSHR is heartwarming for me, as I look around the session rooms and at the youth commitment desk and see scores of others who share our values regarding dialogue. Ironic perhaps that the backdrop of this conference is a country government that has long struggled with such dialogue but there is often a hope in the unseen, and the advocates gathered here in Beijing give one much reason for belief.

Adapting to Climate Change: The Role of Reproductive Health & Family Planning

2009-10-20T21:19:13Z

by Clive Mutunga

In spite of all of the uncertainty leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks in December, one thing is clear: Adaptation needs are the most urgent in the least developed countries. These countries are expected to feel the brunt of climate change impacts: drought, floods, extreme weather, changing disease vectors, declining agricultural production - despite having contributed the least to it. For people in countries most affected by climate change, finding and supporting adaptation strategies that strengthen people's resilience and ability to cope with the effects of changes in climate is critical. My colleague Karen Hardee and I explored these issues and how population fits in our recent study, Population and Reproductive Health in National Adaptation Programs of Action for Climate Change.

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What we found was that the majority of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) blueprints developed by least developed countries for addressing their most immediate and urgent adaptation needs identified rapid population growth as a factor that increased human vulnerability to climate change impacts in their countries. And it is no wonder: Nearly one billion people live in the world's least developed countries, the majority of which are expected to at least double their populations by 2050. Rapid population growth can exacerbate existing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change in multiple ways. For example, population growth in low lying coastal zones vulnerable to storm surges and flooding in Bangladesh is nearly twice as high as the national average; and in Ethiopia, the combination of rapid population growth and declines in agricultural production caused by climate change heighten food insecurity.

Two hundred million women world-wide have an unmet need for family planning. As caretakers of their families, women suffer the most from the effects of climate change. Access to voluntary family planning services will improve the health of women and their children, and increase the access and hence greater opportunities to diversify income sources. This will make them more likely to be able safeguard themselves and their families in the event of disaster hence increasing their resilience. Voluntary family planning, coupled with investments in girls' education and women's economic empowerment, can help improve livelihoods, protect the environment and reduce population pressure. Yet we found that only six of the 41 NAPAs identify family planning as a potential adaptation strategy, and only two prioritized family planning programs for adaptation funding.

The impacts of climate change are projected to be severe in many areas, and multi-sectoral in nature. As such, any and all interventions that can reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to climate change should be considered in an effective adaptation strategies. They should involve participation across development sectors including the health sector, and including reproductive health and family planning to maximize opportunities to to reduce vulnerability and strengthen livelihoods in the face of the greatest development challenge of the 21st century.

Female Genital Mutilation: Three Generations Later

2009-10-06T18:30:16Z

Female Genital Mutilation: Three Generations Later has won an honorable mention in Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn's Half the Sky Contest! The blog was selected from more than 700 entries and will be published on the New York Times website.

Esraa Bani is the Advocacy Assistant in the International Advocacy and U.S. Government Relations departments of Population Action International.

A little four year old lay in bed wrapped in blankets. Her teeth were chattering and her body was warm with fever because she lost too much blood. She laid still in her bed as tears rolled down her face. Days passed by without her sleeping or eating because the pain was too much for her frail body to bear.

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Seventeen years later on March 14th, 1984 my mother was recalling that experience as she was cut open once again to give birth. She had so much scar tissue that she couldn't deliver naturally, she had to get cut AGAIN with a razor. As she passed out from the pain, she heard a baby cry and women cheering and celebrating. The last thing she heard was "it's a girl!".

It has been forty-two years and my mother still hasn't forgotten the day her parents decided to cut her, or perform Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on her. She almost died giving birth to me because of a tradition that my grandmother was fearful to break. She is not alone. Annually, almost three million girls undergo this procedure because of a variety of reasons but mainly its a ritual of purification. Parents would rather push their little girls to the fringe of life than let go of this sacred ritual. They try to blind little girls to the cruel reality of FGM by having a party and showering them with gold and gifts.

Although my mother's generation took some strides towards the cessation of the tradition, it is still an enormous issue in Sudan. Approximately ninety percent of females in Northern Sudan have undergone FGM. The most prominent types of FGM in Northern Sudan are Types II and III. Ironically, Sudan was the first country in Africa to outlaw the practice, but no one really enforces that law. Today, Sudan has one of the highest rates of FGM. While in most countries the rates are going down, in Sudan due to the war in Darfur, it seems like it's actually spreading and being moved to tribes that never used to practice it.

Unlike many parents in northern Sudan, my mother (with the ultimate support of my father) decided to break this old sacred tradition. My mother refused to cut me and my sister. Her strength empowered her sisters to stop the tradition as well. This revolution started with ONE woman who said "enough is enough", ONE family at a time, from ONE generation to the other. Today, three generations later, here I am advocating to eradicate this practice. I've been speaking out against it and have been participating in projects around the world to erradicate FGM once and for all.

I just became a mother a couple of months ago, and I make a pledge today, just like my mother, to never cut my daughter.

Don't Mess Around in Texas

2009-10-05T15:25:34Z

Originally posted on feministing.

When I graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas, I can remember at least two dozen girls (out of a class of 600) pregnant or already with babies. It may seem astonishing now, but it was fairly normal in 1991: so normal, in fact, that our high school had responded with an academic track geared toward expectant and young mothers.

Based on this history, I wasn't totally shocked to learn that President Bush's abstinence-only program led to a 57 percent rise in student pregnancy in the Lone Star state.

]]> What was truly shocking were the recent headlines that some Texas schools are abandoning abstinence-only education! No kidding, guys, what tipped you off that it wasn't working?

Abstinence-only programs were big in Texas. The state received more program funding than any other state in the nation. But the biggest experiment of this idea demonstrated the biggest failures. Classic Texas. What can we learn from this?

First, let's be real. Kids are doing it, and they're better off if we admit it and inform them properly. Even though I was in a particularly zealous phase of "I'm waiting until I'm married," my parents suspected otherwise and connected me to information and resources. "Just in case, be safe" was my Catholic mom's mantra.

But in Texas, under these programs, lessons on reproductive physiology were skipped, and information about condoms and contraception was suppressed, but nothing improved. A situation that was never good to begin with got 57 percent worse because adults wouldn't admit the obvious: many young people have sex.

Second, we must acknowledge that having a baby is extremely tough for young people. It's hard on them, hard on their families, and hard for the community as a whole.

Third, let's admit this approach is a failure. Our policies, decided by ideologues in Washington, D.C., have done a terrible disservice to the young people of Texas.

Fortunately, the Austin American-Statesman reported that "The abstinence-only approach to sex education, which has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $1.3 billion since 1996, has fallen out of favor in many parts of the country. Half the states had withdrawn from Title V by the time it ended in June." Despite this evidence, a Senate subcommittee voted this week to restore $50 million in funding for abstinence-only education. It comes as no surprise that the measure was sponsored by Orrin Hatch, the conservative Senator from Utah.

It would be one thing if our political ping-pong were just screwing up our own country, but the United States has exported these same failed ideas to many sub-Saharan African countries. My organization, Population Action International , produced a documentary in 2007 called "Abstaining from Reality" that looked at the damage done by the Bush administration's abstinence-only HIV-prevention programs. In each interview, people told us how deeply their communities had been harmed by policies decided by people halfway across the world. In Africa, as in Texas, it was painfully obvious that the best approach to avoiding devastating infections and unintended pregnancies is to have the ability to make informed choices and have access to appropriate supplies.

If the rest of the Senate opens its eyes a little bit, the United States will have a tremendous opportunity to regain some of the ground lost during the abstinence-only years. The Obama administration has eased some of the restrictions on international reproductive health programming and has talked about how to make the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief more effective. The international aid and development community is pushing for an end to these programs, and to listen to the people on the ground we are working to help.

The solution to this problem stands out like a 16-year-old girl in her third trimester. We can help people in the South make better decisions about their bodies, lives, and their families--be that in Africa or Texas. All we need is a large dose of reality and small dose of leadership.

Suzanne Ehlers is Interim President of Population Action International .

Climate Change, Population Growth and Reproductive Health: It's About More Than Reducing Emissions

2009-09-29T16:03:01Z

by Kathleen Mogelgaard and Karen Hardee

This is a big week in the march towards the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, where world leaders are expected to hammer out a new global treaty to address the problem. Today, President Obama and other heads of state will meet in New York with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss climate change; the subject is also likely to be high on the agenda at the G20 meetings in Pittsburgh later this week.

Much of the focus this week and leading up to the meeting in Copenhagen in December is on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change: who should have to cut, by how much, and in what time frame. We hear a lot about cap and trade, clean energy, promoting energy efficiency, and other technological solutions. For years, reducing emissions has been the focus of efforts to address climate change. But we know now that reducing emissions is not enough: millions of lives are being upended by the effects of changes in climate - food scarcity, water scarcity, vulnerability to natural disasters and infectious diseases, and population displacement. Women and children are the most vulnerable groups to climate change.

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This helps to broaden our thinking around the diversity of strategies that will be needed for meaningful and lasting solutions to climate change. Investing in contraceptives and reproductive health is about more than reducing emissions; it is also a critical piece of reducing vulnerability and building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

This is true from a demographic perspective, as well as at the individual and household level. Rapid population growth can exacerbate existing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change--for example, population growth rates in highly vulnerable low elevation coastal zones in Bangladesh and China are nearly twice as high as national averages; and in Ethiopia, the combination of rapid population growth and climate-induced declines in agricultural production will heighten food insecurity. At the household level, a woman with access to reproductive health services is healthier and has healthier children; she has greater opportunities to diversify income sources; and she is more likely to be able safeguard herself and her family in the event of disaster. All of these things contribute to resilience in the face of the impacts of climate change.

Slowly but surely, the larger reproductive health and rights community is paying attention to these important linkages in the lead up to Copenhagen. In preparation for this week's climate meeting at the UN, PAI's Dr. Karen Hardee participated in an event hosted by UNFPA to highlight this critical but often overlooked aspect of climate change. Karen spoke of the link between meeting needs for reproductive health and fostering resilience in countries hard hit by the effects of climate change. She highlighted PAI's recent working paper, which examines national climate change adaptation plans for 41 least developed countries. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these plans identify rapid population growth as a factor that exacerbates vulnerability in their countries; unfortunately, only two propose adaptation projects that include aspects of reproductive health.

Karen elaborated on these points in an interview with IPS in Pakistan. In a world where 200 million women have an "unmet need" for family planning, increasing access to contraceptive services can and should be one of the tools for addressing the impacts of climate change.

As heads of state gather in NY and Pittsburgh this week to discuss our climate future, they should broaden their view beyond the technological fixes that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and remember the human face of climate change--a face that is frequently female, and in need of fundamental support that will enable her to take care of herself, her family, and our world.

As International Youth Day Looms, Youth in Western Countries Need to Take Control of Their SRHR, too

2009-08-12T16:06:36Z

Kirana Bammarito is PAI's Communications Intern. She is a recent graduate of American University.

August 12 will mark the tenth International Youth Day as commemorated by the United Nations. In the United States, youth triumphs and tragedies alike have occurred during the past year. November saw the exciting, social-media-driven election of President Barack Obama with July revealing the dismaying, but not surprising, report that declining teen pregnancy and STI rates either stalled or reversed during the Bush years. Rates in the South, where authorities tout abstinence and religion as perfect sex education, are of course, the highest.]]> While infection rates in colleges and universities are high as well, I do not see the same kind of media attention being paid. Perhaps this is because we're legal adults by that time, and we "should know better" by now. Yet, if no one had the proper education in high school, I don't know how anyone expects freshmen to suddenly gain the knowledge mid-keg stand at the Welcome Week frat party. Maybe the "adults" think sexual education is like setting up a bank account or falling in love - no one really tells you how to do it or what to expect - you're just supposed to know.

It's this supposed automatic knowing that scares me as my friends and I try to navigate the real world. Just this week, some friends and I lamented that we are indeed getting older. One friend realized that in just a few short years he could be thinking about starting a family while another thought he'd be engaged by now. While both men are sexually active, neither has gotten tested for STIs in the last year, and both have been with women without even thinking to ask about sexual history/contraceptive safety - condoms are pretty much the only necessary key to a good time.

The United Nations defines youth as people ages 15 to 24, and at 23. I don't see myself as "old" by any means, nor do I feel like a full "adult." Yet, I recognize that I am no longer an adolescent, or even an undergraduate, and I can no longer seek refuge in juvenile excuses. Gone are the days where we can fully blame presidents, parents and policies for bad sex-ed and reproductive health. Unwanted pregnancies and STIs don't care and they don't discriminate.
The statistics are there: half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended; two-thirds of all STIs occur in people 25 and younger, and by age 24, one-third of sexually active people will have contracted an STI. Yet, so many of my friends put off testing, assume they're "clean," or even worse, don't get tested because they're afraid of what the results might be. Others have sex without bothering to use any contraception.

I'm not going to pretend I'm absolved of doing the same, but I get tested every six months both despite and because of, such actions, and I also have an IUD. The myth of invincibility is for high-schoolers. Maybe that's why the District recently just announced it will be offering free STI testing in all high schools. While we work on engaging in more open dialogue about sexuality, STIs and pregnancy prevention, it's time for older youth and young adults (20-24) in Western countries to recognize the risks, educate themselves, and accept responsibility for their actions. For those concerned about costs, Washington, D.C.'s Department of Health offers free testing for anyone.

Family Planning Benefits Malagasy Women and the Environment

2009-08-12T15:23:51Z

Kame Westerman is PAI's Climate Change Intern. She is a current graduate student in Sustainable Development & Conservation Biology at the University of Maryland.

As an environment volunteer with the Peace Corps, I was given the task of visiting outlying villages and promoting sustainable agricultural techniques - the hope being that with increased agricultural efficiency and sustainability, there would be less need to harvest from the surrounding forests. Yet as I quickly came to understand, sustainable agricultural techniques are a moot point if the regions' unsustainable fertility rate of just over five children per woman continues. ]]> The locals - living on the edge of one of the largest remaining forests in Madagascar - have relied for generations on the forest's seemingly endless bounty of natural resources: wood for building houses and carving canoes; firewood for cooking meals; leaves and tubers to supplement the daily diet of rice; and, of course, lemur and bat bushmeat. However, with burgeoning villages and new single family settlements cropping up in remote regions, forest land is rapidly being converted to residential and agricultural uses.

The situation is exacerbated by certain cultural practices that encourage women to become pregnant when they are still young. It is believed that a woman with a child is more desirable because she has already proved her fertility; therefore, it is not uncommon for a woman to have her first child early and with a different man than her subsequent children. In addition, being a culture dependent on subsistence agriculture increases the desire for a large family to help in the fields, tend animals, care for younger children, and cook meals.

While many women do want large families, many others do not: a 2004 survey by the UN shows a 24% unmet need for family planning services in the country. In other words, about one in four women would like to delay their next pregnancy or stop having children altogether, but don't have access to the information and services that would enable them to do so. Along with my environmental work, I began to focus on incorporating family planning and public health into my activities. Armed with a variety of educational tools provided by Peace Corps, I held several meetings with women in my village to introduce information on various family planning options. Although initially drawn to the meetings out of curiosity about "the white girl", the women were eager to learn about and discuss family planning methods - albeit with plenty of giggling.

Unlike many areas on the African continent, Malagasy women have rather significant standing in society (the 2008 Gender Equity Index - which looks at female involvement in economic activity, empowerment, and education - ranks Madagascar alongside Japan!). This does not necessarily mean, however, that in rural villages such as mine, women have sufficient access to family planning information or supplies. The local community clinic, run by two male doctors, is understaffed, underfunded, and undersupplied. As my female friends explained, if they wanted to plan their families, women would have to discuss the rather taboo subject with a man, risk the small community finding out (including her husband, who may or may not be supportive), and most likely would find a lack of supplies; the only other alternative would be a hike of at least five hours one-way to the regional town.

While I arrived in Madagascar with the hope of protecting the island's famous biological diversity , it became clear that helping the stewards of the land - the local people - is the only effective way to protect the environment. Without improving the health and welfare of communities, population growth rates will continue to soar, and the increased demands on forest resources will diminish any conservation effort. Through health programs and voluntary family planning we can greatly improve our conservation outcomes. For further information on family planning challenges faced in Madagascar and how those challenges relate to the nation's unique and vital natural resources, see Population Action International's documentary, Finding Balance- Forests and Family Planning in Madagascar.

Celebrate the Promise that Comes with New Generations

2009-08-12T15:07:01Z

Gabrielle Stopper, Resource Development Intern. She is a recent graduate of George Washington University.

Today marks World Youth Day and a time to celebrate the promise that comes with new generations. Youth bring new ideas, new understanding, and new methods to achieve what was once thought impossible. Walking around Washington DC during the summer, the streets swarming with interns, it is clear how truly exciting the future will be. As a woman in my twenties, having attended college in DC, I have been privileged to watch and become part of the reproductive health movement, though this unique city was not what led me there. My own youthful drive and need to question during high school fueled my first exposure to the field.

]]> I had the opportunity in high school to research abstinence-only sex education and I became outraged at the information those my age were expected to believe. This single handedly insulted my generation's intelligence and I decided to take action. I used my senior thesis and presentation as a platform to teach those at my high school the truth about this harmful sex-education program. This was the first time I understood the power of youth and I became committed, to creating change.

As young people, we often wonder what we can do, and assume that we cannot create change. This is not true. PAI's ten summer interns are proof of our power. There are so many opportunities to make an impact.

I know, as a recent college graduate it seems impossible to give money even to important causes. I laugh every time my university asks for a donation. I have only been a graduate for two months, how can I be expected to give? The truth is every little bit helps. During the past few years, when I had an extra 20 or 25 dollars I chose to give it to an organization that I strongly believed in. This often meant not buying a new shirt or a summer dress but I decided to try to make this sacrifice. I have now seen the impact of my giving. On January 23rd, when President Obama repealed the Global Gag Rule, I knew that my small contributions helped organizations fight for years to end a policy that hurt women around the world. Organizations like Population Action International worked tirelessly and were instrumental in ensuring that when President Obama took office it was at the top of his agenda.

We have the opportunity to create change whether it is by giving, learning, or teaching. Anyone can contribute to the movement. We truly are the future. As the torch is handed off, it is up to us to see how far we run.