A new indispensable resource to a great many working on MHH and MHM issues around the world has been released, and the e-book version of it is free to access. In this blog post, IMHER highlights a few key aspects of this 1,028 page, 72 chapter edited volume.
SUMMARY: The African Women’s Development Fund has announced that it is accepting applications for grants which a number of African menstrual health or hygiene organizations are likely to be eligible. If your MH organization is woman-led and primarily staffed by women, and if it is based in an African country (especially North Africa, the Sahel, or Francophone West Africa), an August 2020 application for this quite-sizeable grant may be worth considering.
On May 27, Days for Girls, the UNFPA, and the ACMHM brought together participants from around the world to consider the intersection of menstrual health and hygiene work and Covid-19 in Africa. In this post, we focus on a selection of key ideas coming forth from the event that are specific to the MHM/Covid-19 intersection that many MH-focused organizations are grappling with right now.
The days before, during, and after Menstrual Hygiene Day / May 28 always tend to be a busy time for those who do work related to menstrual health. This year features many different webinars and events, some pertaining to Covid-19, and some not. Here, we feature a selection of them: May 21, 2020 – 8th Virtual Conference on MHM in Schools, with the theme “Innovation in MHM: Putting Girls at the Center” (link) May 26 – “Menstrual Health – Lessons from the Field” (link) A webinar on “why funders and practitioners should invest in a cross-sectoral approach to addressing menstrual health May 27 – “Menstrual Health Responses to…
On May 27, join many who do MHM work at the 90-minute webinar “Menstrual Health Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa: What Have We Learnt?” This is an event spearheaded by Days for Girls in conjunction with the UNFPA and the ACMHM. IMHER is an honorary host of the event, along with several other MHM organizations. It will feature many different speakers from across the region. Additionally, the timing of the meeting – the day before MH Day – can help to create a sense of community among those doing menstrual hygiene work that could otherwise be missed in the absence on conferences and in-person meetings during the…
This webinar sponsored by the All-Africa Students Union just came to our attention (“Impact of Covid-19 on Women & Vulnerable Groups: What Issues Should Drive Policy Making?”) It will be held on April 24, 2020 at 11:00 GMT, see details in photos accompanying this post. With an interesting line up of speakers, virtual attendance may prove to be useful for those doing menstrual hygiene work in African countries.
New resources at the intersection of MHM and Covid-19 Nearly everyone doing social good work around the world seems to be scrambling madly at the moment. Organizations are trying to find ways to continue to make progress towards their original goals, while also rising to address emergent needs resulting from Covid-19 and the effects of community closures among the the populations they serve. Moreover, most organizations are doing so under suddenly tightened financial constraints, with severely restricted mobility. There are still more questions than answers about how to best deal with this rapidly changing situation. However, with remarkable speed, a number of reports and webinars have emerged to…
What can earlier pandemics tell us about the likely effects of school closures on the education of girls? Written & Edited by Dhwani Kharel, IMHER Research Assistant Many of those who work on global menstrual health and hygiene issues are partly motivated by the idea of promoting girls’ empowerment through educational access and success. Those goals may be compromised by a public health crisis like Covid-19, since school closures can have disproportionately negative effects on the educational trajectories of girls. While the global scale of the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in the modern era, there is some precedent for how school closures can affect girls. In particular, there are some lessons…
Or, more accurately, it has not passed the bill yet. Despite exuberant recent news headlines to the contrary, Scotland did not just pass a bill to provide menstrual products for all in need. At this juncture, the bill in question has only passed the first of many procedural stages on its journey to possible final passage. This post summarizes the political process that this bill still faces to potentially becoming a global first, while analyzing how accuracy can matter in news and social media sharing about global progress on menstrual hygiene issues.
If you have been working on developing a radically innovative, discreet, and environmentally sustainable menstrual product innovation, consider the possibility of applying to the latest round of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Grand Challenges Explorations” grant competition.
