Global refugee total reached almost 60 million in 2014, highest since WWII

The sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls are often neglected in the response to humanitarian disasters and conflict, a United Nations report has warned.1

The report highlighted that, of the 100 million people around the world currently in need of humanitarian assistance, about a quarter—26 million—are women and adolescent girls of childbearing age. It warned, however, that sexual and reproductive health services are most scarce when they are most needed.

In 2014 the global total of refugees reached 59.5 million, the highest since the second world war. Around half (53%) of the refugees came from Syria, Afghanistan, or Somalia, the most by far coming from Syria. Last year Syrian refugees numbered around 3.8 million, compared with just over 2.5 million from Afghanistan and just over a million from Somalia.

Three fifths of maternal deaths occur in states classed as fragile owing to disaster or conflict, and pregnancy and childbirth kill 507 women every day in such countries, the UN report said. Some 64% of unattended births and 70% of infant deaths occur in fragile states. In Sudan and Chad, for example, two of the most fragile states in the world, just 23% of births are attended by a skilled health professional.

Humanitarian crises can also mean a loss of access to sexual and reproductive health services, the report warned. It said, “In the tumultuous early phase of a crisis, food, shelter and care for acute physical trauma often seem the most compelling needs, with gender or any other kind of discrimination something that can be put off for a safer day.”

The report added that humanitarian crises are often characterised by sexual violence and that women and girls are more likely to undergo rape and sexual assault by strangers or partners, to face early marriage, and to have “transactional” or “survival” sex.

Unaccompanied girls who have been displaced are particularly vulnerable, the report warned. A study in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake found the pregnancy rate to be three times higher in the camps than the average urban rate before the crisis, with around 66% of pregnancies unwanted or unplanned.2

Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, said that the “health and rights of women and adolescents should not be treated like an afterthought in humanitarian response.”

He added, “For the pregnant woman who is about to deliver, or the adolescent girl who survived sexual violence, life saving services are as vital as water, food and shelter.”

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Boris Grdanoski/AP