June 7, 2010:
Women Deliver Conference: Day ONE
We had a great first day of the Women Deliver conference, here in Washington, DC.
In addition to other memorable presentations, Samita Pradhan, team leader of the Women’s Reproductive Rights Program (WRRP) in Kathmandu, Nepal presented today in a panel entitled “Reaching Poor Women and Newborns and Delivering Equitable Solutions”. Samita’s presentation was on the Situation of Nepali Women with Uterine Prolapse. Samita presented a comprehensive overview of uterine prolapse in Nepal – its causes, prevalence, and the immediate need to address the issue. Samita noted that primary causes of uterine prolapse are due to cultural factors: early childbirth, poor nutrition, and lack of access to proper medical services. She highlighted the devastating effects uterine prolapse has on these women including social ostracization, discrimination, and the silence with which they must suffer through their condition for years. Samita and the WRRP work to raise awareness and promote preventative measures such as proper nutrition and resting before and after birth.
In addition to Samita’s impactful panel, there were some other very interesting presentations – many of which aligned well with the work of the WRRP. Tamara Kreinin, executive director of Women and Population, UN Foundation, for example, discussed the UN’s Girl Fund – a holistic program which emphasizes education, health, protection from violence, and advocacy. All are topics highly relevant to uterine prolapse prevention programs. The value of a holistic approach to women’s health was also highlighted in the day’s opening session, Celebrate Progress and Sustain Momentum, in which the panelists discussed the need to integrate resources and treat a woman as whole people, instead of individuals with segmented needs. This idea is something we have discussed with regards to uterine prolapse – an issue whose causes are so varied that its prevention must incorporate a broad range of approaches – approaches which would also work to address other problematic areas of maternal health.
Samita was particularly interested in the session, Reaching Marginalized Adolescent Girls as adolescents are a subgroup within Nepal which is particularly vulnerable to uterine prolapse. The UN has released a joint statement on “Accelerating Efforts to Advance the Rights of Adolescent Girls”. Their five strategic priorities are to educate adolescent girls, improve adolescent girls’ health, keep adolescent girls free from violence, promote adolescent girl leaders, and count adolescent girls in order to ‘develop and monitor evidence-based policies and programmes that advance their well-being and realize their human rights’. I was concurrently attending a session on The Big Ask: How to Hold Governments Accountable which took a different angle to approaching maternal health – encouraging complete transparency of government budgets in order that the funds governments pledge towards maternal health are actually spent as such. It is a simple but very strategic mission which, I think, could benefit civic participation and the programs meant for focus. The International Budget Partnership was represented on this panel and seems to do highly impactful work in the field.
These were just a few of the multitude of interesting things we learned today. We’re looking forward to many more sessions in the days ahead!
