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reproductive health > features
One-child policy brings mothers prosperity - and pain
by Valerie Sartor
After 30 years of efforts, exponential population growth has been effectively controlled in China. The fertility rate is now 13 births per thousand people, the population growth rate 0.6 per cent (www.cia.gov). But China's one-child policy has brought pain as well as prosperity to Chinese women, says Valerie Sartor in this exclusive despatch. ... more
Afghanistan:
Women Still in Terror
by Stephanie Hiller
Under the Taliban, Afghan women were beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and shot for teaching young girls to read and write or for showing a lock of hair. The world was silent. Those days are over now, but it seems their access to education, health and employment has hardly changed, as Stephanie Hiller reports. ... more
Penny drops on HIV/AIDS prevention
In the last 20 years, as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has spread around the world, there has been a reluctance to actively tackle the problem within basic reproductive health services. But now the penny has dropped, and a new analysis calls for a much more integrated approach to the problem. ... more
SPECIAL REPORT
Breaking the silence on AIDS in Vietnam
Like other countries in Asia, Vietnam is threatened with an AIDS epidemic. Already the disease is spreading from the cities into the countryside. And as elsewhere in the region women, the stewards of the rural environment, are most at risk. But young people are now joining a national campaign to spread the preventive message, as Don Hinrichsen reports. ... more
SPECIAL REPORT: POPULATION REVISITED
Cairo's broken promises
The 10th anniversary of the UN Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in October 1994, saw much agonising over its impact, and the chances of fulfilling its hard-won Plan of Action by 2015. Here, John Rowley, who edited the first population conference newspaper in Bucharest, in 1974, sums up their findings. ... more
Struggling to end female circumcision in Uganda
Today, female genital cutting (FGC) affects 130 million girls and women mainly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, leaving many suffering long-term, physical and psychologial damage. Despite this long-standing traditional practice, beliefs are slowly beginning to change, says Don Hinrichsen, who visited Uganda to report on the work of one remarkable organisation called REACH. ... more
No contraceptives - no choice
A worldwide shortage of contraceptive supplies is setting back efforts to bring reproductive health to women in many developing countries - a crisis highlighted by the Countdown 2015 conference of non government agencies, held in London last week to review progress in meeting the population goals agreed by 179 nations in Cairo ten year ago. What this actually means to poor women in Africa is revealed in this report from Florence Machio, in Kenya. ... more
SUCCESS STORY
China's quiet revolution in reproductive health
by Don Hinrichsen
With a population of 1.3 billion, much of it crowded into the eastern third of the country, China's rulers remain convinced of the importance of slowing the growth in numbers. However, almost unnoticed, China is adopting a new 'people-centred' approach to reproductive health, which has already spread to 880 counties. Contributing Editor Don Hinrichsen traveled through China to research this exclusive report. ... more
Funding shortfall in the fight against AIDS
by Anna Baxter
Over two years ago, the G8 group of industrialised countries approved a Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Since then the Fund has approved two rounds of proposals totalling US$1.5 billion in 85 countries. Unfortunately, little of the money needed to adequately tackle HIV/ Aids has been pledged. Anna Baxter reports. ... more
SUCCESS STORY
Lucknow: where girls are educated �too much�
For centuries, the North Indian city of Lucknow has had a conservative, mixed Hindu-Muslim population, whose traditional views disapprove of girls being too highly educated or taking employment. But as Meenakshi Shedde reports, the Family Planning Association of India is succeeding in changing community attitudes for the better. ... more
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