International conference tackles womens sexual and reproductive health during humanitarian crisis

A Leicester academic has represented her research on sexual and reproductive health protection for women at an international event in New Delhi attended by 4,000 participants and inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

The Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction supported by UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction), ensures political and stakeholder commitment towards disaster risk reduction (DRR).

After winning a competitive bid with UNISDR and the Royal Thai Government, Dr Nibedita Ray-Bennett (pictured) from the School of Business was invited to present her research for the Thematic Session on ‘Health and DRR’.

Dr Ray-Bennett said: “The research project aims to reduce the number of women falling ill or dying as a result of complications from unsafe menstrual regulation (MR)/unsafe abortion/post abortion care (PAC) in flood-prone areas in Bangladesh, through an integrated intervention package including pre-positioning of UNFPA’s Interagency Reproductive Health Kit 8, capacity building of health service providers and community awareness-raising.”

She added that the thematic discussion on the implementation of the health aspects of the Sendai Framework for DRR, was aimed to assess the current status of the integration of the health sector and the disaster risk reduction community, discuss best practices of affected countries and identify measures for implementation of the health aspects of the Sendai Framework in an all-hazards approach.

The outcome document, entitled, ‘The Bangkok Principles for the Implementation of the Health Aspects of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction’, opens opportunities for collaboration between sectors and stakeholders on implementing the health aspects of the Sendai Framework, integration of health in DRR plans and strategies and positioning of health as a key area of focus for DRR.