Last updated December 2010
Author:
Katerini Storeng, Johanne Sundby
Abstract:
The project examines the dynamic relationship between reproductive health and poverty in two sub-Saharan African
countries, focusing on women’s lived experiences relating to care-seeking for pregnancy, delivery, and abortion within
a context of weak health systems and endemic poverty. The relationship between reproductive health and poverty is
today widely acknowledged at the international level: Universal access to reproductive health care, as well as reductions
in pregnancy-related death, have been endorsed at the global level as targets for measuring progress toward the
United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the dominant international development paradigm for
poverty reduction. Women’s interactions with poorly functioning, inaccessible, and frequently hostile reproductive
health services constitute an intrinsic part of the experience of being poor. In recent years there have been urgent calls
for focused research on the dynamic relationship between poverty and various aspects of reproductive health, including
maternal health and abortion.