The development and implementation of National Reproductive Cancer Screening policies and programmes is an urgent priority in the area of reproductive health in Asia and the Pacific. Most women in both industrialised countries and poorer countries of the region have never had a pap smear test for cervical cancer or any education on how to […]

A collection of key papers and articles.

The most serious obstacles to women’s health and their health rights are cultural, religious and social biases against women. These lead to barriers in accessing quality health information, education and services and inadequate allocation of governmental and donor resources. Lack of medical knowledge, for example, cannot be used to explain why women in developing countries […]

One of the persistent beliefs about the HIV/AIDS pandemic is that it is mostly men who get infected. The reality, particularly in developing countries, is that women are not only getting infected at a faster rate than men but are also suffering more from the adverse impact of AIDS. As of mid-1996 the Joint United […]

This bibliography is a selection of abstracts of key materials from ARROW’S Documentation Centre related to the themes of the resource kiT. The materials thus focus on change in conceptual frameworks, perspectives, policies and programmes towards more appropriate and responsive policies and programmes to meet women’s health needs. Practicality was a main selection criteria, thus […]

There is still a long way to go before the recommendations of the (ICPD) in Cairo 1994 are known, understood and acted upon primarily by government, international agencies and donor organizations in Asian and the Pacific. This was one of the main conclusions of a regional research project on Changes in Population Policies and Programmes […]

Discussions about women’s sexuality, unlike in Western feminist discourses in the seventies, are now likely to be contextualised in duscussions about sexual health, sexual practices, risk-taking and disease prevention. This makes sense in the light of the global pandemic in which five million women have become infected by HIV, most commonly during unprotected heterosexual intercourse. […]

Since at least the early 1980s, family planning organisations in Asia and the Pacific and globally, have been trying to increase ‘male participation’ or more awareness on men’s roles and responsibilities in reproduction in family planning programmes. Increase in the use of male-related contraceptive methods, which is the main conventional indicator of successful participation, has […]

I became a doctor long before I became involved with women’s groups. I had an excellent medical education, but formal education never taught me to handle cases of raped women and to look for signs of violence and abuse against women and children in the emergency rooms of our training hospital. It was only when […]