Programmatic Responses to Refugees' Reproductive Health Needs

Abstract

In a world where most people have less than optimal access to quality re p roductive health services, refugees * often live in circumstances of extraordinary instability that further hinder their access. Factors that define the refugee experience compound the challenge of attaining rep roductive health. Such challenges include violence, displacement and disruption of family and community, dislocation to unfamiliar and often overc rowded surroundings, lack of infrastru c t u re and access to basic survival needs, escalations in c o n flict resulting in new refugee influ x e s and intermittent evacuation of United Nations (UN) and nongovernmental org a n i-zation (NGO) personnel. Several events occurred from the early to the mid-1990s that increased re c o g n i-tion of refugees ’ re p roductive health needs and that generated programmatic responses to them. In 1994, the Wo m e n ’ s Commission for Refugee Women and C h i l d ren published a highly influential report documenting the lack of re p ro d u c-tive health services for re f u g e e s. 1 That was followed by the International Confere n c e on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, which recognized the special re p roductive health needs of migrant populations, including refugees and the displaced. Following the Cairo meeting, the Inter-agency Working Group on Refugee Reproductive Health (IAW G) formed; it comprises re p resentatives of UN agencies, NGOs and governments. A round the same time, re p resentati…