Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi, UNFPA Representative
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has alarmed over the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the health of women and girls.
According to UNFPA, the impact of COVID-19 will likely hamper global efforts to achieve the three ‘zeros’ at the heart of the work of the UN sexual and reproductive health agency.
This includes zero unmet need for contraception, zero preventable maternal deaths, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls – by 2030, according to a press release from the UNFPA office in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.
Speaking on Monday, 13 July at program organized by the Government of Liberia and UNFPA to observe World Population Day and launch of State of the World Population 2020 report, UNFPA Liberia Country Representative Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi said the COVID-19 pandemic is reversing gains made by Liberia in ensuring access to quality health including sexual and reproductive health services by the population and ending sexual and gender-based violence.
“The pandemic is making existing gender inequalities worse with increases in gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse being reported. Anecdotal evidence from service data from one of the counties shows an increase gender-based violence by 25 percent between April and May 2020,” Dr. Ndyanabangi said.
He said Liberia was on track to ensure adequate health care for pregnant women and their newborns as shown in the recently released Liberia Demographic and Health Survey (LDHS) of 2019-2020 which indicates that that 80 percent of deliveries occurred in health facilities higher than the 56 percent of 2013 and deliveries by a skilled provider increased from 61 percent in 2013 to 84 percent in 2019-20.
According to him, this gain seems to be in reversal as services data gathered between March and May and released by the Ministry of Health suggest a 40 percent reduction in access to services including women seeking maternal health services.
He said UNFPA was working with partners and the Ministry of Health to strengthen the capacity of Liberia’s health system to respond effectively to COVID-19 and to deliver quality sexual and reproductive health services as well as dignity kits for women who are homebound or under quarantine.
“As part of this effort, UNFPA brought in and turned over to the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health, medical equipment, drugs and supplies as well as infection prevention materials,” Dr. Ndyanabangi said.
He also disclosed that UNFPA, with the support of the EU–UN Spotlight Initiative, set up a maternity unit and an operating theater at the main COVID-19 treatment center outside Monrovia to provide maternal and newborn care support to pregnant women undergoing treatment at the center.
“With the fear that pregnant women, particularly those suspected or confirmed of Coronavirus may not get the necessary healthcare services, UNFPA established a roving maternity team in collaboration with the Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health to provide care for quarantine pregnant women at the POCs (points of care), treatment units and within the communities,” Dr. Ndyanabangi added.
“Our effort to take family planning services to the community in Montserrado County, working in collaboration with the Liberia Midwifery Association over the last two months, has reached close to 11 thousand women and girls,” he disclosed.
Also speaking, Youth and Sports Minister D. Zeogar Wilson, who officially launched the State of World Population 2020 report, said there is the need for a concerted effort to end harmful practices against women and girls.
“We need to openly hold these discussions with communities and our elders; information on these practices need to be shared; our girls need to understand the harm associated with these practices. We need to enact laws that bar these harmful practices as a nation and as a people,” he said.
The State of World Population report is an annual flagship publication by UNFPA with a focus on population and development issues. This year’s title is Against my will: Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality.
Meanwhile, UNFPA says it is working with the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) in collaboration with the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) to derive a mechanism that will allow for the resumption of field works in the ongoing 2021 Liberia Population and Housing Census which have been suspended due to the Coronavirus pandemic.