Three global trends on a collision course… with women and girls at the crossroads by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)   As 2024 draws to a close, the world is grappling with ever-intensifying crises. UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, has just launched a $1.4 billion humanitarian appeal to address the unique needs of women and girls trapped in, or uprooted by, this wave of emergencies.   Yet at the same time, support for the needs of crisis-affected women and girls is under threat. Below are three global trends poised to collide in the year ahead: Without urgent and global action, the world’s most vulnerable women and girls will be caught in the crossfire of all of them.   1- Catastrophes are rising sharply, with unique impacts on women and girls.   Violent conflicts, extreme weather events, and forced displacement are reaching record levels. Across these emergency settings, women and girls face unique and often neglected challenges.   To start with, many crises are roiling in countries where women and girls already face systematic disadvantages, imperilling their mobility, agility and ability to access aid.   Of the countries facing the highest levels of disaster-related internal displacement, for example, one third rank among the most gender unequal places in the world.   On top of this, in virtually all crises, women and girls face rocketing levels of gender-based violence – roughly twice the rates compared to those in non-humanitarian settings.   All of this plays a role in making crises uniquely harrowing for women and girls – who continue to have their periods, become pregnant and give birth, all while sexual and reproductive health services take a back seat in emergency responses.   UNFPA and its partners are working to ensure these needs are met, even in the most dangerous and deprived places. In 2024, UNFPA reached 10 million people with reproductive health services across 59 crisis-affected countries, support that includes contraception, menstruation supplies, and prenatal, safe delivery and post-natal care. Protection from gender-based violence was provided to 3.6 million people.   Still, this work reached just a small portion of crisis-affected women and girls globally.   2- Global cooperation – and humanitarian funding – are under threat.   “Today, multilateralism is under attack from all sides,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned. This trend – driven by growing mistrust and nativism – threatens the very collective action needed to address the onslaught of violence- and disaster-related catastrophes.   One critical form of global cooperation is humanitarian funding, which has for years failed to keep pace with the proliferation of crises. And funding gaps are especially stark when it comes to the gendered needs of women and girls.   Globally, the humanitarian response to gender-based violence, for example, is one of the most underfunded sectors, with just 27 per cent of the required funding for 2024 received by 24 November.   UNFPA sees this firsthand. By September 2024, UNFPA’s annual appeal for humanitarian support was only 43 per cent funded. In the 34 most underresourced crises, this funding gap stands at a staggering 75 per cent.   Even more severe shortfalls are anticipated in the year ahead, a period when 11 million pregnant women are expected to require humanitarian aid and 92 million people are projected to require protection from, and services for, gender-based violence.   3- Support for women’s rights and reproductive rights eroding   The world faces continued pushback against women’s and girls’ rights and their sexual and reproductive health. New data released this year shows that, in 40 per cent of countries with data, women’s ability to exercise bodily autonomy is actually diminishing.   “Human reproduction is being politicized. The rights of women, girls and gender diverse people are the subject of increasing pushback,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. “Yet we can, and we must, push forward.”   Despite the challenging funding environment, UNFPA is deploying thousands of midwives and medical teams to humanitarian zones. In 2024, UNFPA equipped over 3,500 health facilities to deliver life-saving care, and established more than 1,600 safe spaces for women and girls to seek refuge and empowerment programmes.   And in the year ahead, UNFPA will strengthen local and national responses – especially among women- and youth-led organizations, and to improve emergency preparedness. These measures aim to improve the resilience of at-risk communities while empowering the women and girls on the frontlines who know their needs best.   The coming year will present many challenges, but we already know how to overcome them: With solidarity. “The way forward, how we proceed and succeed, is by working together,” Dr. Kanem said.   http://www.unfpa.org/HAO2025 http://www.unfpa.org/safebirth#/en http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies http://www.unfpa.org/news/underfunded-and-overlooked-neglected-crises-unfpa%E2%80%99s-radar-2025 http://www.unfpa.org/news/explainer-what-unfpa-and-why-does-it-matter   * Trump's anticipated UNFPA defunding will harm millions - Lancet Medical Journal   Women and girls will lose access to essential health services should the US President cut funding.   The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is warning that millions of women and girls globally will lose access to essential sexual and reproductive health services if Donald Trump's expected defunding of the agency goes ahead.   “The impact will be devastating and in particular devastating for women in humanitarian settings”, Sarah Craven, Director of UNFPA's Washington Office, told The Lancet.   As The Lancet went to press, Trump had not yet cut funding. In his first term as President, Trump stopped US funding to the agency within a few months of taking office, and a repeat scenario is likely. “If you look at...the rhetoric during the election, we have reason to believe that we will lose our US funding”, Craven explains. She points to Project 2025, a blueprint for the new President, which proposes stopping funds to UNFPA.   Presently, the USA is UNFPA's largest donor overall and its largest humanitarian donor. In 2024, UNFPA received more than US$230 million from the USA, of which over $200 million was for humanitarian work. Losing this money will impact many countries in crisis. For instance, in Nigeria's conflict-affected regions, over half a million vulnerable people, primarily women and girls, will lose access to crucial health services.   In Yemen, almost 1 million women will be without reproductive health services and nearly 300 000 women will lose access to gender-based violence mitigation and prevention services. In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, hundreds of Rohingya women won’t be able to have caesarean sections, midwifery services will be cut, and the future of the only 24-hour facility providing emergency obstetric and newborn care will be at risk.   The Trump administration is expected to invoke the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which states that no US funds may be made available to “any organization or program which, as determined by the President of the United States, supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization”. Trump invoked the amendment in 2017, as did previous Republican administrations, which accused UNFPA of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation in China. UNFPA rejects these allegations and independent fact-finding missions have found no evidence to substantiate the basis of the Kemp-Kasten amendment.   Experts say defunding UNFPA will harm women. “It will have devastating consequences for the ever-growing number of women and girls facing gender-based violence and inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services”, comments Terry McGovern, Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY, USA.   “Particularly for women and girls in humanitarian settings, UNFPA provides life-saving and essential care, from safe delivery kits to trauma counselling for survivors of gender-based violence”, says Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Health Council, a US-based non-profit organisation. “Cutting this funding not only erodes these lifelines but perpetuates false narratives at the expense of the most vulnerable populations.”   UNFPA has been preparing for the funding cuts. “Because we’ve been through this before, we’re very resilient…We are already working to reach out to other donors”, Craven notes. But the agency has a challenging task. “It's a much tougher funding environment”, Craven explains.   Janeen Madan Keller, Policy Fellow and Deputy Director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development, comments: “If US funding for UNFPA is withheld, it could have very different consequences compared to 2017 when the first Trump administration slashed UNFPA's funding. At that time, other donors, notably European countries, stepped in to bolster UNFPA's budget, thus avoiding negative impacts on programming. But this time around, we are experiencing a period of constrained resources with several donors slashing aid budgets.”   Blocking US funds to UNFPA will have far-reaching consequences, says Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President and CEO of Population Action International, a sexual and reproductive health non-profit organisation. “[It] undermines UNFPA's transformative work to protect women and girls, deepens inequalities, hinders progress in reducing maternal mortality, and reverses decades of advancements in sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially in the face of conflict and climate change.”   Sarah Shaw, Associate Director for Advocacy at non-profit MSI Reproductive Choices, says US defunding of UNFPA would be “catastrophic”. Other groups, including MSI, are expected to lose funding when Trump begins his second term. For all the organisations, “it's going to be harder than ever before to continue vital services”, Shaw notes, and “it will be women and girls who will suffer and die as a result”.   http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00134-5/fulltext Visit the related web page
	Excluding women from medical institutes threatens the future of healthcare in Afghanistan by UN News, OHCHR, agencies Afghanistan   5 Dec. 2024   Afghanistan: Ban on women medical training must be repealed. (OHCHR)   The ban against women in Afghanistan attending classes at private medical institutions is yet another direct blow by the de facto authorities against Afghan women and girls. It is the latest in a long string of State-sponsored discriminatory measures targeting women and girls in the fields of education, work and others – hijacking the future of the country.   The measure is profoundly discriminatory, short-sighted and puts the lives of women and girls at risk in multiple ways. It removes the only remaining path for women and girls towards higher education and will decimate the already inadequate supply of female midwives, nurses and doctors.   This decision will limit women and girls’ already precarious access to healthcare, as male medical staff are prohibited from treating women unless a male relative is present. Afghanistan already has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. Women’s presence in the health sector is crucial.   All these measures, taken by men with absolute lack of transparency and without any involvement of those concerned, are clearly aimed at excluding women and girls from public life.   Afghanistan’s de facto authorities hold the effective power and responsibility for the welfare, security, and safety of the entire population.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urges the de facto authorities to repeal this harmful directive. It is high time women and girls’ human rights are ensured, in line with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations.   Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and campaigner for Amnesty International, said: “This is an outrageous act of ignorance by the Taliban, who continue to lead a war against women and girls in Afghanistan. This draconian action will have a devastating long-term impact on the lives of millions of Afghans, especially women and girls.   “In a country like Afghanistan, where people are bound to traditional and cultural practices, women in most parts of the country are not allowed to be checked or treated by a male doctor.   “With this ban, it will mean there will be no more midwives, nurses, female lab and medical personnel to serve female patients,” she said.   Heather Barr, at Human Rights Watch, said: “If you ban women from being treated by male healthcare professionals, and then you ban women from training to become healthcare professionals, the consequences are clear: women will not have access to healthcare and will die as a result.”   * Afghanistan already suffers from one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and there are deep concerns that that the ban would further erode women’s precarious access to healthcare.   http://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-afghanistan http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/12/afghanistan-ban-women-medical-training-must-be-repealed http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-reported-restrictions-Afghanistan http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1157866 http://www.msf.org/excluding-women-medical-institutes-threatens-future-healthcare-afghanistan http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/06/taliban-afghanistan-ban-women-training-nurses-midwives-outrageous-act-ignorance-human-rights-healthcare http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/03/afghanistans-taliban-ban-medical-training-women http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/12/afghanistan-licenses-ngos-must-not-be-revoked http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/new-morality-law-affirms-talibans-regressive-agenda-experts-call-concerted http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognised-crime-against-humanity-un-experts-say http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-afghanistan Visit the related web page
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