Women, girls, and the economic crisis

22 Aug 2022

Women, girls, and the economic crisis

22 Aug 2022

UNFPA Representative for SL Kunle Adeniyi discusses the issues faced by women and girls amidst the crisis

The ask is $ 9 million to help two million women and girls affected by the economic crisis in Sri Lanka – that is the global appeal the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is making for lifesaving healthcare for women and girls in the next six months, whose protection systems are now being compromised. Currently, in Sri Lanka, there are about 215,000 pregnant women including 11,000 adolescent girls. About 145,000 women are due to deliver in the next six months, while 60,000 of them require surgical interventions. And in this crisis milieu, gender-based violence has also increased. UNFPA Representative for Sri Lanka and Country Director for the Maldives Kunle Adeniyi – whose career in development began as Senior Programme Officer for Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS – has over two decades of experience in sexual reproductive health and rights, human rights, public health, public policy, and law. He has been the Head of Legal and Human Rights and later Technical Lead of the HPDP II World Bank Credit Programme and the Global Fund HIV Grants in Nigeria and the Country Representative in Gambia prior to taking up the posting in Sri Lanka. An alumnus of John Hopkins Centre for Communication Programmes in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, he has an MBA, an LLM, and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB). In this interview on “Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo”, Adeniyi discusses the issues faced by women and girls in crisis situations and the role the UNFPA is playing in Sri Lanka. Following are excerpts: In your two-decade experience, have you ever seen anything similar to what’s happening in Sri Lanka right now in the context of the extent of this crisis impacting women and girls? Countries, economies, and the world structure change from time to time. We could say the world is going into a new normal. Everything that happens in different parts of the world has an impact and implication on other parts of the world, so what’s going on in Sri Lanka presents a new context of what we’ve seen before and what we expect to see in other countries as well. How badly are women and girls impacted in Sri Lanka due to the crisis? In any crisis, women and girls are at the centre, whether in Ethiopia or in what’s going on in Ukraine, to wars across the world, strife, and floods. This is because women and girls are often the most vulnerable, and also because women are the caregivers of the home and protectors of children and society. What impacts are we talking about and in what socioeconomic segments? Firstly, socioeconomically, women often hold roles and jobs that are not the highest paying; these jobs are often the first to be taken out of the way when cost-cutting happens. Secondly, women carry the often difficult – for want of another word – job of being unpaid caregivers; so they manage their homes, families, and extended families but are not paid and not recognised. Thirdly, with women having the biological role of bearing children, there are considerable vulnerabilities. For example, access to sexual reproductive health in times of strife. Right now, there are challenges in accessing medicine, fuel issues limiting healthcare, and a significant increase in gender-based violence, which rise whenever there’s strife and tension in a country. The vulnerabilities are exacerbated in these times from a socio-economic angle and from a deeply social and contextual angle as well. Now that you’ve identified the gaps, what is the UNFPA’s response? The UNFPA’s mandate is to work for the betterment of women and girls, which is a broad mandate. First, we must ensure the health and rights of women and girls are maintained; second, we must protect women and girls from violence; and third, we must ensure women and girls live in dignity. In any humanitarian situation or any difficulty, these three points are central to those responses. Right now in Sri Lanka, there are about 215,000 pregnant women and about 145,000 due to deliver in the next six months with 60,000 of those requiring surgery. There are limitations to drugs and commodities but most often, while we may hear of the lack of heart medication, we will never hear of limitations in access to emergency labour room medication, which we know we may need at this time. It is an abject risk for women, if we don’t look after this area. The UNFPA is working with the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure continued and sustained access to labour room medication and all necessary drugs and medicines for a safe delivery for all 215,000 women. Sri Lanka holds pride of place in the region – and indeed in the world – for very low rates of maternal deaths. We worry that if we don’t make this effort, we may find increases in maternal mortality. Then there’s gender-based violence; even before the crisis, one in four women experienced some form of violence and evidence suggest that in times of crisis anywhere in the world because of tension and coping mechanisms, women bear the brunt from both men and society in general. We are striving to keep the shelters open and viable. Shelters have struggled to remain open as these most often operate on a voluntary basis and on well-wisher contributions. When people lose income, it becomes challenging to support shelters. Another area that needs critical attention is the health of adolescent girls. We have been advocating for the availability of menstrual products to be free of charge because girls and women spend much of their income on menstrual health products, which most often they cannot afford. When affordability comes into question, they use unhealthy and unsanitary coping mechanisms that negate their health. It is important to focus on the dignity of women and girls and ensure that access to menstrual health products is vital to ensure they live in dignity. The UNFPA is central to ensure this continuum is provided for women and girls. We have already committed $ 2 million to Sri Lanka, contributing almost $ 1 million worth of medicines and drug commodities including essential labour room supplies and commodities that help sexual reproductive health and protection. We are supporting 10 shelters across the country to remain open, with cash vouchers given to women to access transport to travel to the clinics. While Sri Lanka has almost 100% delivery in health facilities administered by qualified medical personnel, access to these clinics due to transport problems compromises their protection. All this seems like a needle in a haystack but it is certainly a step forward. I’m glad the UNFPA is working on solutions to the challenges women and girls face, especially those in the vulnerable segments of society. It is my hope the issues facing women and girls become much more central to discussion in Sri Lanka. It is such a fantastic country and has done so well. We are positive Sri Lanka will come out of the economic crisis even stronger. However, it is important that what we do now affects tomorrow and if we don’t make the right investment in women and girls now, it will take very much longer to recover from the negative impact and not lose the gains we have made. (Savithri Rodrigo is the host, director, and co-producer of the weekly digital programme ‘Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo,’ which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She has over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and social media)

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Women, girls, and the economic crisis

Women, girls, and the economic crisis

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