23/6/2006
We Should Do Better For Women - by Fennie Somerville

You'd think, wouldn't you, that with all the emphasis on gender equality and educating girls to play an equal role in the life of developing countries that governments would assign a degree of importance to improving the sexual and reproductive health of women and in trying to end gender based violence?  Well, if you thought so, you would be wrong. 

A recent conference in Brussels on conflict and violence against women, sponsored by the UN and the European Commission, heard some truly appalling statistics. Did you know, for instance, that 200 million women in developing countries lack access to family planning, and that in this age of plenty half a million women still die during pregnancy and childbirth each year from largely preventable causes. 

Even worse some 3 million girls and young women each year still suffer the humiliation of genital mutilation. This barbaric practice has been shown significantly to increase the risk of death and serious injury for new born babies and their mothers

The statistics come from the United Nations and UN agencies like the World Health Organisation who have also voiced concern at the rapid rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections over and above the incidence of HIV/AIDS, which kills some 3 million people a year.

“There is a really worrying rise in the number and severity of sexually transmitted infections,” WHO Acting Director-General Anders Nordström said recently. “But the consequences of poor sexual and reproductive health go well beyond sexually transmitted infections. They lead directly to completely preventable illness and death. It is unacceptable today for a woman to die in childbirth, or for a person to become HIV positive for lack of information and resources.”

The UN estimates that there are some 340 million new cases of sexually transmitted bacterial infections annually and around 8 million women who become pregnant each year suffer life-threatening complications as a result of sexually transmitted infections and poor sexual health.

Together with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), WHO has identified a number
of priority areas for joint action, including a co-ordinated action plan to improve reproductive, maternal, new born and adolescent health.

The two agencies have also called for the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health in national economic planning and training of country teams for planning and working together. They will co-ordinate work in addressing issues such as female genital mutilation, violence against women and obstetric fistula.

The last is a devastating childbirth injury, which can cause a woman to 'leak' urine or faeces. Where facilities exist, surgery to remedy the obstetric fistula is straightforward in most cases, but if left untreated the woman faces years of suffering and indignity that often turns her into a social outcast.

Fistula can also be caused by sexual violence and particularly rape and in these cases, known as 'traumatic fistula' the UN agencies report that the failure rate of surgery can be as high as 20 per cent. The Brussels conference was presented with some harrowing accounts of gender based violence leading to 'traumatic fistula' in girls as young as one year old.

“We must address this issue with hope, passion and compassion,” said the Executive Director of the UN Population Agency Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. “We can talk about this issue until we’re blue in the face, but if the leadership of governments doesn’t insist that this issue is on the table, we won’t make progress. Governments must live up to their promises to make ending sexual violence a priority.”

Among the most heart-wrenching testimonies presented was that of a doctor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jean Pascal Manga, who said he had known instances of young girls being raped by foreign objects such as metal bars, nails and sticks.

“Green wood from the manioc plant had caused a great many problems creating fistulas especially in very young girls,” he said. “No one knew that you would find a fistula in a small girl under five years old, even as young as one year old,” he added. “We face new conditions, and we need exchanges with our western colleagues to treat these problems.”

Women and girls who have been raped need continuing support. “In Africa, once a woman has been raped, she may be abandoned by her entire family, and when she has a fistula and smells of urine, no one wants to be around her,” he said bleakly.

“There must be zero tolerance for acts of gender-based violence and zero tolerance for complacency by governments and other institutions responsible for the safety and well-being of women, men and children affected by conflict,” says the agreement, adopted at the end of the Conference.

Whether such resolutions will help the women in the Congo is another matter, but at least they are a small step in the right direction.