NEW RESOURCE - Updated Factsheet: Ukraine crisis: SRHR are as relevant one year on

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FACTSHEET MARCH 2023 www.countdown2030europe.org
A
year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th
February 2022, and during this time, humanitarian
donors and actors, particularly volunteer and grassroots
organisations, have come together to provide various forms of
support for the 17.7 million people1
that have been affected by
this conflict. As of February 2023, over 8 million Ukrainian refu-
gees2
have been recorded across Europe and about 5.4 million
people3
are internally displaced within the country. The majority
of them are women and children.
UKRAINE CRISIS:
Sexual and Reproductive Health
and Rights are as relevant one year on
WHY ARE SEXUAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
AND RIGHTS ESSENTIAL
IN RESPONDING TO
THE HUMANITARIAN
CRISIS IN UKRAINE?
Anyone who has been forced to flee or who lives in an area
of armed conflict is particularly vulnerable, even more so
women, girls, adolescents and marginalised populations. Peo-
ple’s access to health services may be suspended or the quality
may be low, and they will not have access to life-saving repro-
ductive health care. They are in a dire state of emergency and
further exposed to risk of sexual violence, sexually transmit-
ted infections including HIV, unintended pregnancies and unsafe
abortions. Amid the terrifying devastation experienced through
a humanitarian crisis, people need first and foremost safety
and protection. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services
save lives and prevent further suffering.
The sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) needs of
women, girls, adolescents and marginalised groups in Ukraine
are particularly high. 9.4 million women are of reproductive age,
and many of them have been forced to flee because of the con-
flict. According to official figures, around 195,000 babies were
born in Ukraine in 2022. This means that thousands of women
have experienced pregnancy during the humanitarian crisis, with
hindered access to the needed health support, and many of them
have been forced to deliver in basements used as bomb shelters
in dire hygienic conditions4
. Moreover, as a consequence of the
humanitarian situation caused by the conflict, there has been a
disruption in health service provision, including the provision of
SRH services. In the past 12 months, there have been 747 attacks
on health-care facilities recorded5
, including maternity hos-
pitals. As of February 2023, approximately 14.5 million people
within Ukraine were found to be in need of health assistance and
about 3.6 million people specifically required sexual and gen-
der-based violence (SGBV) prevention and response services6
,
including as a consequence of the increased reported incidence
of abuse, rape used as a weapon of war7
and trafficking.
"We stand together and remain
a people not defined by the war
but by our strength, resilience
and values. Under shelling, air
raid sirens, without electricity, we
remain committed to supporting
the healthcare system through
provision of essential equipment,
medicine and training for doctors."
DR GALYNA MAYSTRUK
Executive Director of Women’s Health and Family Planning Ukraine
The Polish Women’s Strike runs several refugee reception centres, which provide
hygiene items, winter clothing, baby items, food, legal advice, and accomodation.
9.4 MILLION
WOMEN
ARE OF REPRODUCTIVE
AGE, AND MANY OF THEM
HAVE BEEN FORCED TO FLEE
BECAUSE OF THE CONFLICT
195,000
BABIES
WERE BORN IN
UKRAINE IN 2022
747 ATTACKS
ON HEALTH-CARE
FACILITIES, INCLUDING
MATERNITY HOSPITALS
3.6 MILLION
PEOPLE
REQUIRED SEXUAL AND
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
SERVICES
Offentligt
SRSR Alm.del - Bilag 1
Folketingets Tværpolitiske netværk for seksuel og reproduktiv sundhed og rettigheder 2022-23 (2. samling)
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"We helped, for example, two
teenagers, 14 and 15 years old who
were raped by Russian soldiers on
their way to the Polish border…
I met the young girls at the Warsaw
railway station in the dark of the
night, and we went together to a
private clinic, which opened during
the night for us. They were provided
with medical procedures for survivors
of rape, antiretroviral injections, and
HIV tests. They were so thankful;
they had no words to thank us."
KRYSTYNA KACPURA
President of Federa, Poland
WHAT DO SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE
HEALTH AND RIGHTS MEAN IN A CRISIS?
SRHR in crisis include access to safe delivery and new-
born care, access to contraceptives to prevent unintended
pregnancies which could further endanger the life of the
woman and her family. It also includes other key elements
like prevention, detection and treatment for SGBV, access
to safe abortion, comprehensive sexuality education for
youth, prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections, and protection for people of diverse
sexual orientation and gender identities. SRHR are an
essential component of the universal right to the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health, protec-
tion from violence and the right to safety and essentially
the right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Like all other human rights, it applies to
refugees, internally displaced persons and anyone living
in humanitarian settings. Prioritising the needs of women,
girls, adolescents and the most marginalised populations
in emergencies is therefore a human rights imperative and
should be at the heart of the response to the humanitarian
crisis in Ukraine.
ACTIONS TO BE
TAKEN BY EUROPEAN
HUMANITARIAN DONORS
AND ACTORS
01. ENSURE A SUSTAINABLE,
COORDINATED AND
CONTEXTUALISED
HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE,
PARTICULARLY BY
STRENGTHENING THE
COLLABORATION WITH
LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY
ORGANISATIONS
There are many local and international humanitarian actors
and donors currently working in and around Ukraine, providing
services to affected populations. However, for these humanitar-
ian efforts to be efficient and sustainable, the response to this
conflict must be coordinated among all the donors and actors.
It is also paramount for this coordinated response to include
crisis-affected communities as well as local organisations,
such as those that work on SRHR, women’s and Lesbian Gay
Bisexual Trans Intersex Queer Asexual (LGBTIQA+) rights, which,
since the conflict began, have taken on the responsibility of
providing humanitarian assistance and essential services
to affected populations in Ukraine and outside its borders8
.
This service provision is often in addition to the services these
organisations had been providing before the onset of the war.
Moreover, due to their work with the affected communities, they
are best placed to quickly identify and highlight marginalised and
underserved populations, as well as bring forward the specific
needs and priorities of the different communities. Collaborating
with these local organisations allows for a more context specific,
gender sensitive and sustainable response, since it allows for
this crisis to be viewed through an intersectional lens, which is
a crucial step in developing and implementing a contextualised
humanitarian response.
COUNTDOWN 2030 EUROPE CALLS ON EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) TO:
→ Scale up funding to local SRHR, women’s and LGBTIQA+ rights
organisations and enhance funding streams that are either flex-
ible or tailored to enable locally grounded effective interventions
and to foster complementarity with multilateral and governmen-
tal initiatives;
→ Proactively involve local women-led and marginalised
community-led organisations in the coordination of emergency
operations among all humanitarian actors operating around
the Ukrainian crisis and build up the capacity of women, girls,
adolescents and marginalised groups to access and influence
decision makers in the near future.
The proportion of people in need of some form of SRHR services,
including SGBV services and access to safe abortion care, will
continue to rise the longer this crisis is protracted as well as in
its aftermath, and it is therefore important that the humanitarian
response explicitly includes SRH services and care and respects,
protects and fulfils human rights of all, especially women, girls,
adolescents and the most marginalised groups.
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02. PROTECT AND SUPPORT
THE MOST MARGINALISED
AND UNDERSERVED
Emergencies have a disproportionate effect on the most marginal-
ised and underserved members of a community: women, children
and adolescents, as well as the elderly; people of diverse sexual
orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex charac-
teristics; people living with disabilities; ethnic minority groups and
those with a migrant background or from refugee communities.
Their intersecting vulnerabilities are compounded, and they face
multiple forms of discrimination, as existing inequalities are mag-
nified in times of crises. It is crucial for an effective humanitarian
response to ensure they are part of the planning and implemen-
tation phase to ensure it is tailored to their needs and wishes.
Moreover, services must be provided to all without discrimination
and barriers to their access must be tackled.
COUNTDOWN 2030 EUROPE CALLS ON EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES AND EU TO:
→ Prioritise, in their humanitarian response, the protection
and support of the most marginalised and underserved people,
responding to their needs and leaving no one behind. This can be
done through:
• collaboration and support of local CSOs
• sustainable, flexible and long term institutional financial
support of these local CSOs;
→ Ensure that access to humanitarian aid and health services,
including SRHR services, is guaranteed to all, free from discrimi-
nation and in case it is not, actively work to remove access barriers.
03. PRIORITISE FUNDING FOR
SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE
HEALTH AND RIGHTS CARE
FOR ALL
SRHR are a fundamental part of healthcare provision and an
essential element of Universal Health Coverage, however, they are
often overlooked during a humanitarian crisis. Babies continue to
be born, pregnancies keep happening, the need for contraception
continues to exist during conflicts, as well as the necessity for basic
and menstrual hygiene products. Over the past year, for the people
in Ukraine, access to some of these SRHR services has become
difficult as a result of the breakdown in the health system due to
attacks on health infrastructure and disruption in the supply chain.
For the refugees in host and transit countries, differences in legisla-
tion and policies for some SRHR services such as contraception and
safe abortion, cost of services as well as access for certain groups
like the LGBTIQA+ community, have been barriers to accessing key
SRHR services. As a result of these barriers to access, it is important
to prioritise funding for SRHR and care across this crisis response,
and strive to remove these restrictions to SRHR services.
COUNTDOWN 2030 EUROPE CALLS ON EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES AND THE EU TO:
→ Through collaborations with local CSOs, allocate sufficient fund-
ing for comprehensive and non-discriminatory SRHR services, as
well as invest in supply chain and logistics for the lifesaving SRH
supplies required to fully implement the Minimum Initial Service
Package (MISP)9
for SRH in crisis situations;
→ Remind all stakeholders that the full MISP is a non-negotiable
international standard of care that should be implemented at the
onset of every emergency, including in the humanitarian crisis that
has resulted from the conflict in Ukraine, both in Ukraine itself,
and also in neighbouring countries hosting refugees;
→ Ensure that provision of SRH services through MISP specifi-
cally includes services for marginalised populations such as the
LGBTIQA+ communities;
→ Take actions to remove barriers and restrictions to access time-
sensitive and essential SRHR services, including safe abortion, in
Ukraine and in the neighbouring countries.
Justyna Grabowska,
Founder of
Asymmetrical, is a
partner of the Polish
Women’s Strike and she
provides refugees with
referrals to safe places
to sleep, food and other
items they need like
sanitary products.
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For more information on Countdown 2030 Europe, please
visit our website at www.countdown2030europe.org
or contact us at eninfo@ippf.org
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION
@C2030Europe
Countdown 2030 Europe (C2030E) is a Consortium of 15 leading
European non-governmental organizations advocating towards
European donors for increased funding and support to Sexual and
Reproductive Health (SRH), including Family Planning (FP), in
international development cooperation. Consult C2030E website
and join us on twitter for more information on SRHR in EU policies,
including the latest figures on European donor support to SRHR.
04. PRIORITISATION OF
SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED
VIOLENCE SERVICES FOR ALL
Women, girls, adolescents and marginalised groups are dispro-
portionately affected by the crisis, as emergencies exacerbate
existing gender inequalities and structural discriminations and
risks of SGBV, increasing their vulnerability while either remaining
in the country, or during the journey to flee it. The forms of SGBV
that have been reported within the conflict in Ukraine include a rise
in intimate partner violence, human trafficking, conflict-related
sexual violence and rape, as well as sexual exploitation and abuse.
Risk mitigation and prevention strategies such as well-lit and
sex-segregated toilets are not always in place in the shelters. It
is important that humanitarian actors and donors make efforts
to reduce the risk of SGBV for the conflict-affected populations
and adequately support all survivors of SGBV, including through
providing SRHR, mental health and psychosocial services.
COUNTDOWN 2030 EUROPE CALLS ON EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES AND THE EU TO:
→ Recognise that services to support all SGBV survivors are
essential and ensure, including through funding and advocacy, that
they are accessible in Ukraine and in the neighbouring countries.
This should also encompass essential SRHR services for SGBV
survivors, including access to life-saving safe abortion care and
post-abortion care;
→ Through collaboration with local CSOs, implement risk
mitigation and prevention strategies in shelters and support dis-
semination of information on SGBV services to the refugees and
hosting communities.
1. UN OCHA (as of 10 February 2023).
2. UNHCR (as of 15 February 2023).
3. IOM (as of 5 February 2023).
4. UNFPA.
5. WHO, Surveillance system for attacks on healthcare (as of February 2023).
6. UNFPA, SitRep #17.
7. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, October 2022.
8. Regional Gender Task Force, Making the Invisible Visible, October 2022.
9. The Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive
Health in crisis situations is a series of crucial, lifesaving activities
required to respond to the sexual and reproductive health needs of affected
populations. It includes a full package of SRHR services, including family
planning, maternal and newborn health, contraception, abortion, etc.
Rostyslava is an artist from Odessa in Ukraine. She is a single mother, and after
enduring months of bombings on her city, made the decision to flee to safety
to Romania with her daughter, cat and dog. She was helped by local Romanian
organisations to receive urgent SRH care.
Photographs: © IPPF / Hannah Maule-ffinch
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