UNFPA – Advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the private sector

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UNFPA

UNFPA commissioned the group Accenture to conduct research and develop a measurement framework and metrics to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in workplaces in the private sector, including in LMIC countries. It was published in May 2024. It’s a beautifully designed publication, addressed to private companies that employ a lot of women, which focuses on the following issues:

  1. The significant gap in addressing SRHR in the workplace.
  2. The critical role of the private sector.
    • Women spend 40–60% of their reproductive years at their place of employment.
    • Approximately 190 million women work in global supply chains concentrated in countries with high unmet needs for women’s health services.
    • 38% of countries do not provide maternity leave that meets the International Labour Organization’s standard of 14 weeks, and 44 per cent of countries across the world do not guarantee paid employment leaves for both parents after childbirth.
  3. The business case for why the private sector should adopt SRHR practices and reporting.
  4. Six areas in which companies can make an impact:
    • Detection and prevention of sexual and gender-based harassment and violence.
    • Antenatal, childbirth and post-natal care and family-friendly workplaces.
    • Prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS and other STIs, via access to testing and treatment.
    • Counselling and services for women’s reproductive, menstrual and menopausal health.
    • Counselling and services for modern contraceptives and comprehensive family planning.
    • Detection, prevention and management of reproductive cancers.
  5. Using three key levers for action: policies, awareness raising, and access to counselling and services.
  6. The rest of the publication’s chapters cover:
    1. indicators and metrics,
    2. practical steps for successfully adopting SRHR practices, including a range of tools,
    3. embarking on an SRHR transformation, and
    4. a detailed glossary that takes up more than a third of the publication with definitions, examples and sections outlining aspects of policies, awareness and access.

Note: Abortion, safe or unsafe, gets no place at all in this publication. Only on page 3, in the Introduction, is there one paragraph in the whole 60 pages, which says: “In line with the ICPD paragraph 8.25, UNFPA does not consider or promote abortion as a method of family planning. Rather, UNFPA accords the highest priority to voluntary family planning to prevent unintended pregnancies. UNFPA does not fund or perform abortions. UNFPA respects the sovereign right of countries to decide the extent to which abortion is legal. In all countries, UNFPA supports the right of women to receive post-abortion care to save their lives.” 

Thus, from 1994 to 2024 – 30 years – UNFPA has failed to take on the subject of unsafe abortion in a UN publication about health policies, rights, services and justice for women.

SOURCE: UNFPA, May 2024.