Back ground and Women's Health and Rights

The policy environment in Uganda is supportive of the condom promotion in principle, and there are currently no regulations that would negatively affect the design and implemenattion of female condom program. The Ministry of Health has been implementing a "quite" condom promotion policy. A draftcondom policy document has been developed by the Ministry of Health in Uganda. However, it has been publicly launched, or disseminated widely due to lack of consensus among key developemnt partners.

According to the Situational Analysis of the Female Condom (FC) in Uganda by the Ministery of Health of February 2009, the FC program adopted a strategic apporach of using existing structures. However, it lacked an explicit implementation strategy and realistic provions for funding to support tratining, community mobilization, demand generation and distribution. No promotion strategy was planned or executed, nor were target groups prioritised to optmise uptake through existing channels. Service providers were not able to provide interpersonal outreach which has been shown to be  a key factor for successful trial and subsequent uptake. The majority of people interviewed across the country had never seen the FC. It was difficult to find users who were not part of an FC study. Commercial Sex Workers [CSW] honed their negotiation skills and used it successfully with clients. Price was an important barrier to condom use for the FC users, all women of low income. Other factors that discouraged use were partner refusal, aesthetics and cultural practices. No operational systems were developed for monitoring and evaluation, quality assurance and management oversight.  






The sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls are intrinsically linked. It is essential that global and domestic women’s organizations support each other’s efforts to embrace and promote the use of the female condoms as a strong tool against HIV and other STIs, as well as maternal deaths.NACWOLA - Uganda is currently coordinating a coalition for female condom promotion advocacy. So let us support the efforts of the coalition. Together we can.....

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission:
Although the supply of anti-retroviral treatment is helping to reduce the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS, AIDS is still a leading cause of mortality worldwide with an estimated 1.8 million deaths in 2009.6 Three-quarters of these were in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS is the primary cause of death.

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission

 

 

 HIV/AIDS infections were initially concentrated among men, but women and girls now account for slightly more than half of all infections. In sub-Saharan Africa, more women than men are living with HIV/AIDS, and young women aged 15–24 years are as
much as eight times more likely than men to be HIV-positive. In some countries, even being married is a risk factor for women to acquire HIV/AIDS. The consequences of HIV/AIDS infection are also skewed against women and girls, who do most of the caring, but are more likely to miss out on schooling, experience gender-related violence, and loss of property as a result of HIV/AIDS infection.

Female condom demonstration

 

Background information about the female condom:
Why is universal access to female condoms urgently needed?
The consequences of the unmet need for contraception. Despite the range of highly effective contraceptive options available, there is nonetheless a great unmet need for contraception, particularly in the developing world. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that there are around 215 million women worldwide who would like to limit or plan the number of children they have, but who are not currently using any form of contraception. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in developing countries, more than one-third of all pregnancies are unintended, with major implications for each child, each woman, each family, and wider repercussions on overall society related to population growth. A fifth of all pregnancies end in induced abortion.2 Of these abortions, more than half is executed by unsafe means. Worldwide, 21,6 million unsafe abortions cause 5 million women to be hospitalized each year, and account for 13 percent of maternal deaths.While global contraceptive prevalence has increased slowly from 55
percent of women of reproductive age in 1990 to 64 percent in 2005, it remains low in sub-Saharan Africa at just 22,8 percent. Meeting the current need for contraception would reduce maternal deaths by around a quarter. Making the female condom available to all women and men would increase the instances of protected sex and thus contribute to the reduction of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths.

Female condom training....

An Affordable HIV Intervention: Because Women Are Worth It - Serra Sippel - President, Center for Health and Gender Equity

Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, the global community has developed a sense of solidarity and urgency to save lives. On International Women's Day, we need to leverage that solidarity and urgency to help those who are most affected -- women. Currently, half of those infected with HIV globally and 60 percent of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa are women. The same women who are at risk of HIV infection are also at risk of unintended pregnancy. What does the world have to offer women when it comes to prevention of HIV and unintended pregnancy?