During a crisis, the need for reproductive health services in humanitarian settings doesn’t go away. In fact, it increases significantly. Stories featured in this post are first-person accounts from those who have lived and worked in humanitarian settings.
Worldwide, more people are on the move than ever before. By the end of 2018, there were approximately 70.8 million people who were forcibly displaced, and it is estimated that 136 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance globally. About half of all refugee, internally displaced, and stateless populations are women and girls. Those in humanitarian settings and those who are forcibly displaced are at an increased risk for many health concerns, including those related to reproductive health.
What Women and Girls Face
During a humanitarian crisis, the need for reproductive health care doesn’t go away. In fact, it increases significantly. Women and girls are more likely to experience interrupted contraceptive access—especially with methods that require frequent resupply, such as pills— as commodities and trained health professionals become scarcer and infrastructures to deliver contraceptives shut down.