In the United States, policies and practices enacted in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic—such as social distancing, sheltering in place, shifting to telemedicine and limiting care to “essential” procedures—are widening gaps in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes and access to services. As obstetrician‐gynecologists, pediatricians and adolescent medicine specialists who are frontline providers of SRH services, we are seeing firsthand the documented decreases in access to SRH education, abortion and contraceptives (particularly long‐acting reversible contraceptives, or LARCs), as well as increases in reports of gender‐based violence. These trends have disproportionately affected minoritized and marginalized groups, including adolescents, people of color, those living in poverty, immigrants and undocumented individuals, and residents of rural areas. In this viewpoint, we provide a clinician's perspective on the gaps in services and outcomes between these and more privileged groups, and make recommendations to narrow these gaps, both now and in the future.
Key Takeaways from Session 1: Safety First of crisis-management workshop series for YLOs and CBOs to address operational needs during COVID
Recording of "Session 2: Safety First, Operations a Close Second" of the crisis-management workshop series for YLOs and CBOs to address operational needs during COVID
COMING SOON. Recording of "Session 3: Get Ahead" of the crisis-management workshop series for YLOs and CBOs to address operational needs during COVID
In partnership with two youth leaders, we developed this educational video on the needs and barriers adolescents faced when accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. In this video, we discuss the capacities of adolescents and opportunities for humanitarian organizations to work with adolescents to improve SRH information and service provision. The video complements the sub-working group’s ASRH in Emergencies fact sheet and will soon be available with Arabic, French, and Spanish subtitles.
The Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The mandate holder has been invited to assess the implementation of existing international human rights instruments with regard to ways to overcome violence and discrimination against persons on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity and to identify and address the root causes of violence and discrimination.
This study, conducted by the Population Council in partnership with Médecins du Monde France, documented the barriers to access to medical and psychosocial services for sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors in Borno state, Nigeria especially within the critical 72/120-hour window for clinical management of rape and make recommendations for developing interventions to address the primary and secondary prevention needs of vulnerable groups to SGBV.
Localization recognizes the importance of local actors in leading and designing solutions that impact their own communities. For SRH actors working in humanitarian settings, localization is critical to ensuring emergency preparedness and response efforts are responsive, innovative, and levering the expertise and voices of women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people most affected by crises.
This panel will launch a joint advocacy brief developed by these coalitions containing recommendations for governments, donors, and implementing agencies from development and humanitarian settings to improve access to universal health care by focusing on supply chain strengthening at the points where humanitarian and development work converge. It will also present several examples of SRH supply chain interventions in the humanitarian-development nexus at global, regional, and national scales that exemplify some of the recommendations made in the advocacy brief.
If you are working in the field of GBV in Emergencies and would like to join the community of practice of over 700 other GBV specialists around the world, please send an email to gbvcop@gmail.com to apply to join. We host webinars, share new resources, promote discussion and online mentoring and learning. We welcome all professionals who work on GBV.