As part of the main drivers of the BAM Group of Companies, this being the umbrella company within which Informative Newspaper operates, alongside sister brands Finite Magazine, Finite Lifestyle Club, Bam Promotions and Twin Talk, Informative Newspaper takes particular interest in social issues and causes created to advance the development of young girls and women and their participation in the global space.
To advance and cement the organization’s support for women and young girls, the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is today, through this issue introduced. Its purpose is to
advance knowledge and create further awareness on developments surrounding the said community sector and to help audiences stay updated on such, further guiding means of both action and reaction to these developments.
This week we discuss: Contraception and family planning
Family planning programmes are a key component of comprehensive SRH and they provide essential services, information and commodities to women. Family planning not only benefits women, it also helps families and communities: when women are able to manage the size of their families, they can
ensure that all children go to school and households have more resources for food, shelter and health care.
According to global research conducted in 2014, 225 million women who wanted to prevent or delay pregnancy were not using an effective method of contraception and a 2012 study on global trends on intended and unintended pregnancies showed that about 40% of all pregnancies globally are unintended, with the highest number of these being in Africa. Both married and unmarried women experience barriers to accessing contraception and to making informed decisions about family planning.
Lack of access to contraception puts women at risk of HIV and other STIs and leaves them powerless to make decisions about the most intimate aspects of their lives. The adverse health consequences of unintended pregnancy include chronic ill health and even death, while the social costs include increased poverty, disruption of education for girls and stigma and discrimination.
In addition to preventing unwanted, unintended pregnancies, family planning services, when integrated with HIV services, provide a crucial opportunity to discuss HIV with women, helping them assess their risk of HIV, including from sexual violence, how to prevent transmission and linking them to HIV testing and counselling services. It is also a critical, and often missed opportunity, to provide targeted services for women living with HIV.
Family planning is the information, means and methods that allow individuals to decide if and when to have children. This includes a wide range of contraceptives – including pills, implants, IUDs, surgical procedures that limit fertility, and barrier methods such as condoms– as well as non-invasive methods such as the calendar method and abstinence. Family planning also includes information about how to become pregnant when it is desirable, as well as treatment of infertility.
Modern contraceptive methods: the pill, injectables, IUDs, implants, female and male condoms. Traditional contraceptive methods: abstinence54, withdrawal.55 These methods are not effective at preventing pregnancy and STIs. Research shows it is difficult for people to abstain indefinitely from all forms of sexual activity. In addition, women and girls do not always have control over when and how sex happens, so they may not be able to abstain from sex even should they wish to do so.
Unmet need for modern contraception: these is women who want to prevent pregnancy but who do not use contraception or use traditional contraceptive methods for various reasons, including because they do not have access, they cannot afford it or social and cultural pressures force them to become pregnant.
Vulnerable and marginalised women (who struggle to access contraception and family planning): these include women and girls living with HIV, women and girls with disabilities, adolescent girls, displaced women and girls, refugee women and girls, sex workers.
Family Planning 2020
Family Planning 2020 is a global partnership between governments, civil society, multilateral organisations, donors, the private sector and the research and development community to support women’s access to contraception and their rights to decide “freely and for themselves, whether, when and how many children they want to have”.
The campaign plans to expand access to contraception, information and family planning services to 125 million women and girls in 69 of the world’s poorest countries
by 2020. Focus countries include several SADC countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Next, we discuss: Human rights barriers to family planning and contraception