A Study of Health Sector Reform, Maternal Mortality and Abortion in Selected Countries of the South (coordinated by Sonia Correa).

This report of a global policy research effort on health sector reform, maternal mortality and abortion, undertaken by DAWN in 12 countries of the South under a grant from the John and Catherine D. Mac Arthur Foundation, makes a uniquely substantive and timely contribution to the literature on national level advocacy work in support of women’s reproductive health and rights in the post-ICPD period.

DAWN invested heavily in both the ICPD and its 5-year and 10-year implementation reviews, producing analyses and engaging in sustained advocacy and lobbying to facilitate the consensus that was reached in Cairo, and subsequently assessing ICPD implementation across a range of selected Southern countries, highlighting the policy environments which enabled or constrained implementation.

The research represented by the present report has built on that earlier work by DAWN and was similarly led by DAWN’s Research Coordinator for Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights, veteran women’s rights lobbyist, Sonia Corrêa. The 12 countries covered in the research effort span Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay), the Caribbean (Barbados, Jamaica, Surinam and Trinidad and Tobago), Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), and South East Asia (Philippines).