Tag Archives: 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights

Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to further evolve and innovate approaches to ensure long term transformative changes to end sexual and other forms of gender-based violence, which is probably going to outlive the pandemic.

Very often it is our disabling attitudes that make life difficult for people with disabilities, rather than their own physical impairments. More than the disability itself, it is its psychological effects that take a bigger toll on the person, says wheelchair-bound Tanzila Khan, a disability rights activist who founded GirlyThings.pk. …

Building resilience is critical to minimise the impact of humanitarian crises Article based on insights from United Nations expert on humanitarian responses on how governments, institutions, communities, individuals and other levels/ actors can boost their resilience to cope with crises situations such as the pandemic. The number of people affected …

…so goes an old common blessing given to an Indian bride, talks of gender equality notwithstanding. While the small family norm slogan of ‘hum do, hamare do’ (we two, ours two) has rubbed in well the penchant for begetting at least one son has not waned. Many modern Indian women …

The world celebrated International Day of Older Persons on 1st of October. Sri Lanka also celebrates its Children’s Day on the same day. What a beautiful coincidence, even though perhaps purely by chance (and not by design). Indeed, this celebration of the young and old age alike is a symbolic …

“We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing” International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) So said the famous playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw. Alas, instead of being celebrated, older age is feared and looked down upon by many and ageism …

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of weak health systems that were ill-prepared to withstand the onslaught of the pandemic. As documented by the Pulse survey of the WHO, the pandemic has resulted in the disruption of essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health services, in most countries. …

Rights-based access to emergency contraception is a human rights issue and it should be included routinely in all family planning programmes, integrated into all health services and made available for all women and girls in dire need of it.

Countries in the Asia Pacific region are at the forefront of bearing the onslaught of climate change. During the last three decades, 45% of the world’s natural disasters have occurred in this region, which is vulnerable to floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, storms and tsunamis. While climate change affects everyone but …

The United Nations (UN) data estimates that 168 million people worldwide will need assistance in 2020 to deal with humanitarian crises, including natural disasters, extreme climate events, conflicts and infectious disease outbreaks. 25% of these will be women and girls of reproductive age. And they are the ones who are …

The recently released Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2020 shows that Asia and the Pacific region is not on track to achieve any of the 169 targets of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), including those around ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health services. Despite commitments …

With nine months left to meet the HIV-related 2020 targets, we are not on track to end AIDS by 2030. In Asia Pacific region, despite unprecedented progress initially in scaling up HIV programmes for prevention, treatment, care and support (in different countries and key populations), we are still lagging way …

The Asia Pacific region is home to more than half of the global population and many low-income countries. While the region is witnessing rapid economic growth, gender inequalities persist and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are far from being available to all. In the lead up to this year’s …

Accelerating progress on sexual & reproductive health & rights is key driver towards SDGs Improvements in the health sector, as well as in other sectors such as infrastructure development, economic growth and poverty reduction, play a major role in improving not only health and life expectancy of the people, but …