Climate disasters ‘block access to women’s healthcare’

[NAIROBI]气候变化-relateddisastersare worsening the vulnerabilities of women and girls as essential健康services including family planning get overlooked during such times, a报告说。

联合国人口基金会（UNFPA）的报告说，诸如极端风暴之类的事件使得难以获得性和生殖卫生服务，从而导致童婚，基于性别的暴力，意外怀孕和孕产妇死亡的风险增加。

“During climate emergencies, we often witness a disruption of service deliveries,” says Angela Baschieri, population dynamics adviser at the UNFPA East and Southern Africa regional office.

“During climate emergencies, we often witness a disruption of service deliveries. This includes access to health facilities for childbirth.”

安吉拉·巴斯基里（Angela Baschieri），联合国

“This includes access to health facilities for childbirth, access to family planning and other lifesaving interventions. These impacts are particularly important to the less fortunate and the vulnerable.”

The report reviewed key climate change documents known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), andevaluated国家气候行动框架，计划和战略中如何考虑性别和健康问题，包括性和生殖健康和权利。

The review reveals critical gaps in countries’ national climate政策and proposes adaptation measures to respond to the impact of climate change on women and girls, offering hopes of achieving good health and gender equality.

Researchers assessed 50 NDCs from five UNFPA regions: the Arab States, Asia and Pacific, Western and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to Baschieri, domestic violence, rape, trafficking, early and forced marriages, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse are some of the types of性别- 基于人道主义紧急情况常见的暴力。

She adds that increasing drought means women and girls travel longer distances to collect water and firewood, exposing them to sexual and gender-based violence.

In Zimbabwe, which has suffered years of successive drought, women account for 65 per cent of people involved in fetching water, compared to 35 per cent men, according to its Nationally Determined Contributions for 2021.

Baschieri说，肯尼亚，马拉维，莫桑比克和乌干达等非洲国家的妇女和女孩已经受到气候变化的严重打击，经常遭受飓风和严重干旱的毁灭性影响。

在莫桑比克，关注CyclonesIdai和Kenneth在2019年，主导的评估显示，包括基于性别的暴力在内的妇女和女孩的风险增加。

“Many women were separated from family and community networks and had lost their livelihoods and supportsystems，” Baschieri说。“例如，如果她们流离失所，她们将无法上学，例如，如果父母失去生计，她们可能不再能负担得起他们的父母结婚。”

Baschieri敦促整个非洲政府整合性和生殖健康and rights into climate-resilient health systems and disaster risk reduction plans, and provide opportunities for young people.

“Climate policymakers must take targeted and bold actions to ensure that the foundation of climate policies is based on some of these key elements,” she explains.

Tijani Salami, a Nigeria-based sexual and reproductive health rights advocate, agrees that climate change disasters have affected health services, and sexual and reproductive health rights.

“This is an age-long problem that has been overlooked, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Salami, a principal medical officer at the Nigeria-based Federal University of Technology Minna.

“In any disaster, health services of people in such communities are affected generally…but unfortunately the practice has always been that when responses commence, sexual and reproductive health for women and girls are neglected.”

African governments, he says, need to increase investment in sexual and reproductive health and create platforms that address the needs of women and girls affected by disasters.

他补充说：“从长远来看，我们应该建立有弹性的社区，以减轻气候引起的灾难发生时的健康影响。”

这件作品由Scidev.net的撒哈拉以南非洲英语桌子制作。