“After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions,” said James Waggoner, President of Advocates for Youth.
Naina Dhingra is the Director of International Policy at Advocates for Youth and serves on the Developed Country NGO Board Delegation of the Global Fund.
The annual spring meetings of the World Bank will be held this weekend in Washington, D.C. amidst turmoil and controversy surrounding its head, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz, better known for his role as a former Bush official central to the planning of the Iraq war, came under fire yesterday for impropriety surrounding the promotion and pay raise of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. Wolfowitz, who has been outspoken on the need to get rid of corruption in development during his tenure at the World Bank, made the hourly CNN newsfeed for helping Riza secure a high paying special assignment to the State Department when he joined the Bank.
As if he didn't have enough problems, the Financial Times reported last night that reproductive health policies have been under attack under Wolfowitz due to the appointment of Juan José Daboub to managing director. Daboub is a former member of the ruling conservative party of Ecuador. The FT reports that Daboub is "attempting to radically alter a long-standing health strategy at the World Bank" and that "there was a widespread perception within the bank that the emphasis on contraception in preventing disease was being altered following the appointment [of Daboub]."
If humor has healing powers, The Onion is a great doctor. (For those of you unfamiliar with The Onion: Do you live in a cave? er... What I meant to say is ... Please understand that the following video is a joke. Satire. Not to be taken seriously.) I hope this makes you laugh and brightens your Friday.
Editor's Note: Today we welcome Pamela Pizarro, writing from Canada. She has experience with youth coalitions and will be writing about the sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth in Canada.
Youth are curious; it is one of our fundamental traits as young people. It helps us to explore and learn about the world around us. Curiosity about sex and sexuality is something that every young person goes through. We begin by exploring our own bodies, and then move on to exploring the bodies of others. It is a natural progression that each individual goes through, and when we encounter questions about our sexuality we look to our peers, educational institutions and our parents for answers.
Just when you thought the information surfacing about "Dr." Eric Keroack's professional practice and extracurricular pseudo-medical activities couldn't get any weirder ... it just got weirder. Back in November, Keroack was appointed by Bush to head the Title X Federal Family Planning Program, amidst widespread outrage over the fact that he runs a chain of highly unethical crisis pregnancy centers, believes contraception is demeaning to women, and has used junk science to argue that premarital sex undermines women's biological capacity to fall in love. After just five months on the job, on March 29 Keroack abruptly resigned as Head-Anti-Family-Planning-Zealot in charge of meeting low-income women's family planning needs, amidst investigations into the legitimacy of his professional practice. This week, the Boston Globe took a closer look at the Mass. board of medicine's accusations, and their report indicates a disturbing series of ethical lapses that should come as no surprise to those who have been following the coverage of Keroack to date.
Editor's note: Today we welcome Deepali Gaur Singh, writing from India. She has experience in childcare, health, and education; she will be covering reproductive health issues on the continent of Asia.
At a time when even children from rural marginal families in one part of India—the southern state of Karnataka—are engaging in information dissemination on HIV with a specific focus on stigma and discrimination, adult policy-makers in five states of the country have rejected the new syllabus introduced by the national government's Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) featuring sex education as a dedicated subject for middle school students. Just as the central government gets credit for taking one of the most proactive steps with regard to both education and children in recent times (by directing all states to include the subject in their curriculum), and with the training of teachers also underway, it's ironic that the resistance to the move has come from just about every quarter possible.
An article in Time Magazine on March 30th sported some sloppy reporting on reproductive health. The article "A Pro-Choice Movement in Mexico" included a comparison of abortion policies in surrounding Latin America (emphasis mine):
Although Chile has one of South America's strictest anti-abortion codes, it's estimated to have twice as many abortions each year (200,000) as Canada - a country with twice Chile's population. (Abortion is legal in Canada.) As a result, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, late last year sanctioned the free distribution of abortion-inducing "morning-after" contraception pills at government-run hospitals.
Elizabeth Leahy is a Reseach Assistant at Population Action International (PAI) and lead author of "The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters To a Safer, More Equitable World" which is being released today.
As the lead author of PAI's new report "The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World," I was interested to read Eesha Pandit's recent blog post about an article profiling the report appearing last week in The New York Times. I am glad that Ms. Pandit is considering the complexities of the linkages between youthful populations and civil conflict. However, she based her analysis on a single news article that covered one aspect of what is a complex, multi-faceted piece.
The report aims to provide valuable new insights into the programs and investments that can make countries "healthier"—more peaceful, more democratic, and better able to provide for the needs of their citizens. Far from "scapegoating young people...for the problems of developing nations," youth are a tremendous asset for any society, especially if they are educated, healthy, and living in a safe and equitable world. PAI's report shows why investments in programs that respond to their needs are so important.
... it is no simple coincidence that 80 percent of the civil conflicts that broke out in the 1970s, '80s and '90s occurred in countries where at least 60 percent of the population was under 30, and that almost 9 of 10 such youthful countries had autocratic rulers or weak democracies.
The PAI study finds one thing that is consistent among strife-ridden nations like Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Congo is that they all have very young populations.
William L. Nash, a retired Army major general who directs the Center for Preventive Action of the Council on Foreign Relations, says: "You've got a lot of young men. You've got a lot of poverty. You've got a lot of bad governance, and often you've got greed with extractive industries. You put all that together, and you've got the makings of trouble."
It is unfortunate that in the year 2007 feminism still gathers negative media attention with such ease. For the last few weeks the blogosphere has been buzzing with fervor about a study claiming that feminism is bad for people's health. The topic has gone viral, ranging from conservative blogs such as rightthinkinggirl to liberal blogs such as feministe. All you have to do is search for "feminism is bad for your health" and up pops 11,200 results.
The fact that this topic has garnered so much attention, including kudos from Rush Limbaugh, worries me deeply. It is reminiscent of the late nineteenth century theory that education was bad for women's health, which attempted to keep women out of higher education. Fortunately this theory was dispelled, as the one about feminism hopefully will be. As absurd as it sounded, I decided to go to the source and see if there's any merit to the claim that feminism is bad for people's health.
