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Southampton research tackles major issues of global reproductive health

January 20, 2000

The urgent need for family planning and reproductive health services in developing countries worldwide is being tackled by Southampton research expertise.

Problems associated with reproductive health and access to
contraceptive information and services, both in adolescence and in later life, are the focus of two multi-million pound research programmes funded by the Department for International Development and led by the University's Centre for Sexual Health Research.

Both programmes will run for five years. The first, 'Opportunities and Choices', focuses on reproductive health issues in developing countries, with special emphasis on poor communities. The main aims are to increase the impact of existing reproductive health services, and to develop new routes for providing effective reproductive healthcare for
groups which are currently under-served.

The programme is based in the Department of Social Statistics at Southampton, and the research consortium includes Marie Stopes International and the London School of Economics. Research projects are currently taking place in Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malawi, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Projects focus on the availability of services, affordability, and quality of care, and are designed to provide real information on reproductive healthcare needs in particular cultural and socio-economic contexts.

The programme director, Professor Ian Diamond, Dean of Social Sciences at the University, links the need for this research to the global drive to halve poverty by 2015. 'Around the world there are many millions of couples who want to use family planning but are prevented from doing so by both physical and cultural barriers,' he says. 'Millions of women are unnecessarily suffering poor reproductive health.'

The second programme, 'Safe Passage to Adulthood', is directed by Dr Roger Ingham, Director of the Centre for Sexual Health Research, and aims to research problems faced specifically by young people-including unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection and, crucially, lack of access to information, education and services.

The priorities of the programme include understanding more about the social contexts in which early sexual activity takes place, the various pressures that young people experience-social, economic and coercive-and the barriers that prevent more effective provision of education and services. Currently, initial assessments are being carried out in Zimbabwe, Mali, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Romania, and the Czech Republic.

'The main aim of these programmes is to come up with realistic and workable solutions for reproductive healthcare,' said Monique Hennink, Senior Research Fellow. 'Providing better information and better services in some of the world's poorest communities will make a radical difference to people's lives.'


For further information
Dr Monique Hennink, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Social Statistics, University of Southampton (tel. 023 8059 5763; email mh6@socsci.soton.ac.uk).
Joyce Lewis, Public Affairs, University of Southampton (023 8059 2116; email j.k.lewis@soton.ac.uk).

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