Anne-Beatrice Kihara

Anne-Beatrice Kihara is a Kenyan physician and professor who is President of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. She has dedicated her career to improving the physical health of women across Africa.

Kihara grew up in Kenya.She became interested in medicine whilst helping her father, Dickson Kihara Nyaga, who was a public health officer. She was a medical student at the University of Nairobi, where she had an unplanned pregnancy. At the age of twenty one she was forced to repeat the year, and eventually had to complete her medical degree as a single mother. After completing her medical degree, she worked as a gynaecologist in Nairobi. She established maternity facilities and a village hospital. She worked to empower local young women by providing them access to work.

Quotes

• While abortion remains a stigmatised health care matter, progress has definitely been made with the adoption of the Maputo Protocol on several issues related to gender equality and gender rights. . Speaking about challenges in implementing the Maputo Protocol for your country context.

• The Maputo Protocol has helped to address harmful cultural practices, support women's and girls’ empowerment through education and employment, promote economic safety nets, and work towards a zero-rate unmet family planning needs and a zero-rate preventable maternal deaths. It has also promoted the need to pay attention to vulnerable and marginalised populations such as people living with HIV, people living with disabilities, humanitarian crises, urban informal and rural populations, adolescents and youth.. Still speaking about challenges in implementing the Maputo Protocol for your country context.

• Strengthening access to safe abortion are requires a multi-tier approach, which must include:

Creating enabling environments for safe sexual practices, access to family planning services and dissemination of information for the prevention for sexual transmitted diseases and HIV. Providing options when unintended pregnancies occur, such as pregnancy crisis centres, adoption services and safe abortion services. Averting complications from unsafe abortion – post abortion care services that include family planning and contraception. Building resilient health care systems based on clinical evidence. Investing in advocacy to deliver improved health outcomes based on clinical evidence, human rights and patient-centred health care. Undertaking research to gain in-depth understanding of socio-behavioural influences. Diversifying the service delivery models and use of technologies in abortion programming and operationalisation. .Speaking on how the challenges to the implementation of the Maputo Protocol will be addressed.

• The Livingstone Safe Abortion Care Charter focuses on seven key priority areas that OBGYNs identified to address the scale of unsafe abortion – a leading cause of preventable maternal deaths and disabilities.

The commitments in the Livingstone Charter build and sustain political will, and are crucial to advance safe abortion care - nationally and globally - as well as to ensure that advances made so far are not rolled back, as has recently happened in parts of the world. . When asked hat role can healthcare professionals, particularly OBGYNs, play in advocating for the full implementation of the Maputo Protocol and addressing the barriers that still exist in realising women’s and girl's sexual and reproductive rights.

External Links

[[[Category:Africa]]