According to Nelly Munyasia, Executive Director at Reproductive Health Network of Kenya, the Global South continues to face many humanitarian crises. 'We face floods, we face hunger, we also face war, and women and girls and the LGBTQI+ community continue to be the most affected. There is an increase in gender-based violence, disrupted access to essential services like education and healthcare, heightened risk of women and girls facing sexual exploitation, early marriage, intimate partner violence and displacement. We have seen young girls during this period being forced to get married so that maybe their family can get some 'bride price,' or because they do not want the young girls to be a burden as they flee the conflict areas."
"There is also disruption in education and healthcare services. When roads are broken, girls and women are not able to cross over the river banks, which disrupts their education and affects access to healthcare. Women who need antenatal care (medical and supportive care a woman receives during her pregnancy), or contraceptives and family planning, people living HIV who need their routine medicine refills- they are not able to access them because of either conflict or the flood crisis. Large scale displacement, food insecurity, and breakdown of social structures - all of these expose women to increased sexual exploitation."
Constitutional promises vs regressive GCD in Kenya
Nelly comes down heavily (and rightly so) on Kenya hosting the 2nd Pan-African Conference on Family Values- an event which is being opposed by those who support bodily autonomy, gender equality and human rights and believe in gender diversity where no one is left behind.
"Kenya has not only signed the contentious and regressive 'Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD)' but it will also be hosting the so-called family values conference in May 2025. This is very problematic because it creates an environment for the anti-rights movement to penetrate deeper into policy spaces of Kenya. We continue as a movement to call out and speak against this regressive group of individuals who purport to be ensuring that they are restoring African values, but what they are trying to preach is not African- for example, when they talk about killing of the LGBTQI+ community and when they spread hatred then these are neither African or human values. Kenya's constitution is very clear in terms of providing services to all, including reproductive health services, but most importantly protecting life. So keeping in mind the disinformation peddled by the anti-rights groups, we should focus on ensuring that we implement the constitution. We must hold the government accountable and also support the government so that when opposition strikes they can deal with the anti-rights groups, so that everyone enjoys their rights not only in Kenya but Africa as a whole," she says.
The recent report of the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health, while emphasising the critical link between gender justice and global health equity, also acknowledges the rise of anti-gender ideologies and the need to counter their harmful effects on global health and gender equality. It says- "We are in 'the fight of our lives' against the anti-gender rhetoric and a rollback of gender rights. Now is a crucial moment in time to turn the tide on the rise of anti-gender rhetoric and to increase understanding of the importance of gender in public health."
Let us work together for a feminist and gender-just inclusive world order where everyone has equal rights, equal dignity and equal access and control of resources, irrespective of their caste, creed or gender identity. Gender inequality and toxic masculinity must end with us.
Shobha Shukla - CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Shobha Shukla is the award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service) and is a feminist, health and development justice advocate. She is a former senior Physics faculty of prestigious Loreto Convent College and current Coordinator of Asia Pacific Regional Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and Chairperson of Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA received AMR One Health Emerging Leaders and Outstanding Talents Award 2024). She also coordinates SHE & Rights initiative (Sexual health with equity & rights). Follow her on Twitter @shobha1shukla or read her writings here www.bit.ly/ShobhaShukla)
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