Giving Compass' Take:

• Kathy Calvin discusses the continued need for family planning information and support during humanitarian crises that exacerbate existing reproductive challenges. 

• How can family planning become a standard element of humanitarian responses? 

• Learn how female surge staff can help meet the needs of women and girls during crises. 

A woman’s basic human right to plan her family and her future does not go away when disaster strikes.

But amid some of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time, the needs of girls and women are often neglected.

These girls and women face significant health risks in humanitarian settings: Unsafe environments put them at increased risk for sexual violence, and lack of access to quality health care – including family planning services – mean more unplanned pregnancies and more maternal, newborn, and child illness and death.

A woman’s basic health needs do not wait for conflict to end. Her essential rights are not suspended. To ensure the dignity of all human beings and to realize the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals to “leave no one behind,” we must help the most vulnerable among us.

Read the full article about family planning by Kathy Calvin at the United Nations Foundation.