Worldwide, there are approximately 10 million refugees and 26 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Approximately 80% are women and children. Facing serious challenges surrounding conflict and displacement, women may become more vulnerable to illness and poor reproductive outcomes while fleeing their homes and moving to a new location. Critical health issues include ensuring safe pregnancies and deliveries, meeting family planning needs, preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS, and preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV). CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) began a formal reproductive health in crises program in 1998. It has broadened its target populations to include refugees and IDPs in the emergency phase, in post emergency camps, returning to their countries of origin, and those who have integrated into the local host community. This allows public health officers to follow the full continuum of health from the emergency setting to that of viable communities. DRH has the following goals for its reproductive health in crises activities:
DRH has released a new resource aimed at improving the reproductive health of women and their families in conflict-affected areas throughout the world. The Reproductive Health Assessment (RHA) Toolkit for Conflict-Affected Women contains tools to assess the reproductive health needs of conflict-affected women and guidance on how to use these data to promote and enhance programs and services. DRH collaborates with partners to understand the burden, causes, and risk factors for negative reproductive health outcomes in very low resource settings, including humanitarian emergencies. Assessing barriers to health care access also helps to guide reproductive health policies, programs and interventions. Past reproductive health assessments include work among refugees in Ethiopia and internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia. Special studies of gender-based violence were conducted in East Timor and Kosovo. CDC conducted the largest study ever undertaken in Afghanistan on maternal mortality in 2002. Findings from this study, for which DRH partnered with UNICEF and USAID, showed that maternal mortality levels overall were among the highest in the world, maternal mortality was the leading cause of death among Afghan women of reproductive age, and that a large majority of maternal deaths were preventable. For more information on these studies, visit the publications web page or send an email to DRH. Current funding for DRH refugee activities is provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Past funding has been provided by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Refugees, Population, and Migration, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. DRH is an active member of the Inter-Agency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG) established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and works closely with the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict (RHRC) Consortium.*
Division of Reproductive Health's Services Management,
Research & Translation
Search PubMed for articles on Refugee Reproductive Health
Page last reviewed: 7/29/08 |
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