By Guest Blogger Dan Traficonte
In this third blog post covering my visit to the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference, I highlight some research from the conference focused on the importance of considering local social practices and belief systems into health policies and interventions.
Faduma Gure, a Master’s student in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Ottowa, conducted fieldwork in Somalia to explore awareness of and attitudes to emergency contraception and their implications for health interventions. Somalia’s high fertility rate, high maternal mortality ratio, and low contraceptive prevalence rate coupled with restrictive abortion laws make addressing the lack of family planning services an extreme challenge. In conflict or post-conflict settings like Somalia, emergency contraception can be critical for pregnancy prevention, yet Somalia remains one of the few countries in the world without a registered progestin-only emergency contraceptive pill.
Ms. Gure conducted a qualitative, multi-methods study comprised of structured interviews with key informants, including physicians, non-governmental officials, government officials, local Somali pharmacists, and married and unmarried Somali women. Most participants showed little knowledge of existing family planning methods or emergency contraception, however, once contraception was described, all participants expressed tremendous enthusiasm for expanding access to post-coital contraceptive methods in Somalia. All participants expressed that an available emergency contraceptive would fill a major gap in reproductive health service delivery, and all government officials interviewed indicated that emergency contraception could easily be incorporated into the existing health system.
It is a common belief—and often a misconception—that people in conflict-torn and impoverished countries like Somalia reject modern medical technologies due to conflicting local practices and beliefs. Ms. Gure’s preliminary research indicates that the lack of emergency contraception in Somalia does not result from local beliefs, but from lack of knowledge and access to the technology.
Dan Traficonte is a 1L at Harvard Law School interested in the intersection of global health and international development.