The threat of COVID-19 to SRHR services

In the current state of global chaos around the COVID-19 crisis, the impact on girls and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights is not making any headlines. But the reality is that the crisis will have a truly devasting impact on the futures of millions of girls and young women. Girls and young women faced significant barriers in accessing essential sexual and reproductive health information and services before the COVID-19 crisis. Now, amid a pandemic that is straining even the most robust of healthcare systems, there is a real risk that these rights will move even further from reach.  With lockdown leading to increased gender-based violence – and rates of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and FGM predicted to increase exponentially – information and services that protect and promote girls’ and young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are more vital than ever.

Yet, far from a global effort to step up lifesaving services in light of these shocking statistics, the crisis threatens to shrink girls’ and young women’s already limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services in three major ways. 

First, we are seeing resources redirected away from vital sexual and reproductive health and rights services in favour of other COVID-related responses. We know from past epidemics that a lack of access to essential health services due to a shutdown of services can ultimately cause more deaths than the epidemic itself. Difficulty accessing contraceptives and other essential services such as safe abortion denies millions of girls and women the right to control their bodies and lives.

Second, lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 have closed schools, leaving many young people out of school, even fewer young people are now receiving vital Comprehensive Sexuality Education. All too often when shifting from offline to online learning, CSE falls by the wayside and isn’t included in learning packages. And even where it is, with connectivity still being a luxury rather than a right and an ever-widening digital gender gap, girls and young women from marginalised, poorer households are the least likely to be able to access this information. Even if they then overcome numerous barriers to get online, girls and young women are so often subject to harassment and abuse, they are less likely to stay online.

Third, as COVID-19 fuels and shapes major political and economic change, there is a concern that more conservative politicians will seek to use the crisis to curtail hard-won sexual and reproductive health and rights – for example, by limiting access to safe abortion.  

Bridging the Gap

The scale of the problem demands concrete actions from our governments. With disruption to schools, health services and community centres, new ways of providing information and support to adolescents and young people need to be established. This can include social media and remote learning, but comprehensive sexuality education must also be included in distance learning packages and considerations made for those who do not have access to digital resources.

• Policy makers must also make sure that girls are not discouraged from returning to school by being flexible in their approach to education and making it easy for pregnant girls and young mothers, who often face stigma and discriminatory school re-entry laws, to complete their education.

• In our programmes at Action for Health Initiative, we are using a range of innovative methods to ensure we reach children and young people with vital information including radio, TV, mobile apps, video animations, songs and phone hotlines.

• Governments must ensure continued access to sexual and reproductive health services, which means keeping clinics open and using tele-health as an alternative to face-to-face appointments. Governments and the private sector should also work together to ensure continuity in the supply chain of contraceptives and essential medicines for those living with HIV. These services are of paramount important in humanitarian contexts such as the case of South Sudan, where sexual and reproductive health services must be treated as the lifesaving interventions.