State of World Population 2012 - Country Page List - UNFPA

“… culture influences the status of women’s reproductive health
through determination of the age and modalities of sexuality,
marriage patterns, the spacing and number of children,
puberty rites, decision-making mechanisms and their ability to
control resources, among others. Societal and cultural gender
stereotypes and roles also explain why so many adolescent boys
and men remain on the fringes of sexual and reproductive health
policies and programmes, despite their key role in this realm and
their own needs for information and services.”
— UNFPA Family Planning Strategy, 2012
also exist within rural communities, and
national income quintile assessments can mask
the relative disparities within rural and urban
communities. For example, research from Latin
America and sub-Saharan Africa finds that
when adjusted quintiles for rural communities
are used to examine family planning indicators,
women from the wealthiest quintiles within
their rural communities are more able to access
family planning services (Foreit, 2012).
In other settings, the rapid expansion of
urban areas has also outpaced governments’
abilities to develop the infrastructure to provide
the urban poor with quality family planning.
More than half of the world’s population
Strengthening integration of HIV
and sexual and reproductive health
in Zimbabwe
Women and girls of reproductive age have been hardest hit by the HIV
epidemic in Zimbabwe: prevalence among pregnant women is high, and
HIV and AIDS are responsible for about one in four maternal deaths. In
2010, an assessment of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS
policies and programmes found that inadequate integration of sexual and
reproductive health and HIV programmes diminished health providers’
capacities to respond to women’s and girls’ unmet need for family
planning. In collaboration with UNFPA, the World Health Organization
and UNICEF, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is closing the gap
by developing new integrated service-delivery guidelines and training
service providers.
now lives in urban areas, and in the coming
decades, almost all global population growth
will occur in towns and cities, with most urban
growth concentrated in Africa and Asia (United
Nations Population Fund, 2007). Two-thirds of
Africa’s urban population lives in informal settlements,
where a lack of infrastructure and the
threat of violence impede women’s use of transportation
and health services (UN Habitat,
2003; Taylor, 2011). Many urban pregnancies
in developing countries are unintended; there
is a 30 per cent to 40 per cent difference in
contraceptive prevalence between women in the
richest and poorest urban households (Ezeh,
Kodzi and Emina, 2010).
Stock-outs, disruptions in supply chains,
and costs contribute to unmet need in hardto-reach,
underserved communities in both
urban and rural settings. Additionally, a lack
of targeted information relating to the needs
of people who live in isolated rural areas and
densely populated urban communities are
among key factors contributing to lower levels
of contraceptive use and higher unmet need
(Ezeh, Kodzi and Emina, 2010).
Migrants, refugees and displaced people.
Migration and displacement, the movement of
persons from one area to another has become
increasingly commonplace. The total number
of international migrants has increased over
the last eight years from an estimated 150 million
in 2000 to 214 million persons in 2008
(UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, 2008a). The reasons for migration and
displacement within and across borders vary,
but whether forced or voluntary, for political,
economic, social or environmental reasons, the
World Health Organization notes that the large
numbers of people whose place of residence has
shifted present the international community
62 CHAPTER 3: CHALLENGES IN EXTENDING ACCESS TO EVERYONE