Three global trends on a collision course… with women and girls at the crossroads by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)   Dec. 2024   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 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.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/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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