The non-availability of voluntary family-planning services (like condoms and emergency contraception) in crisis situations increases the risk of unintended pregnancies, increases health risks for pregnant women and for those who resort to unsafe abortions. Gender-based violence, one of the most pervasive human-rights violations, that is already widespread in times of peace, is exacerbated during conflicts and disasters when communities' protection systems break down.
Dr Tomoko Kurokawa feels that during emergencies, availability of sexual and reproductive health and family-planning services and protection of women from violence are as essential as food and shelter. So much so that very often access to basic sexual- and reproductive-health services determines the choice between life and death for women and girls.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put to test all health systems and national response capacities - both in terms of scaling of public health preparedness as well as for mitigation of broader socio-economic impacts. Some countries in the Asia Pacific region have also had to simultaneously contend with the already existing humanitarian crises and overlapping natural disasters. It has made them particularly vulnerable and less equipped to respond effectively.
The pandemic has already had far-reaching impacts on poverty, inequality, employment, economic downturn, human-rights protection, which will leave long-lasting scars on the process of recovery and rehabilitation and inter-development work for years to come.
Recovery will require application of a comprehensive approach across the triple nexus through a resilience lens. There are already reports of increase in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, increase in unmet need for family planning and increased risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices during the lockdowns.
But Dr Tomoko Kurokawa is upbeat with examples of innovative and creative demonstrations of resilience at various levels for the continuity of provision of sexual- and reproductive-health information and services across the Asia-Pacific region during the pandemic. She shares that "In Pakistan, a women's safety App was upgraded as an innovative solution to counteract challenges posed by lack of mobility and gender-based violence during the lockdown. In Afghanistan, a youth health line providing adolescent sexual- and reproductive-health information and services has reached over 5000 young people. In Mongolia, telemedicine services were set up by practising physicians to provide quality sexual- and reproductive-health services. In Mongolia a legendary Mongolian queen chatbot avatar provides counselling to adolescents about life and love on Facebook. In the Philippines, a free condom-delivery service under 'a condom heroes program' is enabling people in lockdown to access condoms."
Investing in resilience helps prevent and curtail economic, environmental and human losses in the event of a crisis, thus protecting development gains and benefiting many of the sustainable-development goals.
The 'new normal', necessitated by COVID-19, will require agility, creativity and nimbleness to bridge the humanitarian development peace divide and to empower women, girls and young people as agents of change to build resilience and ensure sustainability of effective humanitarian action.
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