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On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. Global reproductive health advocates say the consequences of that decision will be felt around the world.
In today’s edition: We’ve also got details on the British Investment Partnerships, and an update on WHO’s view of monkeypox.
With its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court opened a tumultuous new era in women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health in the country. It also cast the United States as an outlier among countries that have mostly trended toward protecting abortion rights around the world.
The U.S. now joins Poland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua as the only nations to backtrack on or restrict abortion policy in decades.
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Adva Saldinger reports that advocates who have pushed for reproductive health rights around the world are worried about the message the ruling could send — and about the possibility anti-abortion groups in other countries could learn from the U.S. playbook for attacking what many believed to be firmly established law.
In Indonesia, it could further galvanize proponents of a family resilience bill that would restrict women’s rights and access to contraceptives and criminalize homosexuality and extramarital affairs, said Marcia Soumokil, the Indonesia country director at Ipas, at a recent media roundtable.
In Bangladesh, a local organization that works with Population Action International reported that within 24 hours of last month’s leak of the draft opinion on the Supreme Court’s ruling, groups opposed to the expansion of sexual and reproductive health and rights were “using this as additional fuel for why access to abortion and SRHR is not something Bangladesh should be moving forward with,” says Kazi Hutchins, president and CEO at PAI.
In Malawi, advocates have pushed for legislation to expand access to safe abortions when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if a woman’s health is at risk. That effort has stalled, and advocates worry that the U.S. ruling will further energize its opponents, says Pansi Katenga, director of development at Ipas.
Read: Bracing for global impact as Roe v. Wade abortion decision overturned
More than 50 countries have reported 3,000 monkeypox cases since early May, but the World Health Organization, following advice from a group of experts comprising the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the outbreak, deemed it’s not yet a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC — a decision that surprised many.
In its final report Saturday, the committee — though it noted internal “differing views” — advised WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus not to call it a PHEIC, saying a reassessment should take place if the rate of reported cases increases over the next three weeks, if:
• cases are found among sex workers,
• there’s been evidence of “significant spread to and within additional countries,”
• reported cases increase in severity,
• more cases appear in vulnerable groups such as immunosuppressed individuals.
Several experts were surprised by the decision, including Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist who is senior director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health + Hospitals.
“The window to contain and control this outbreak is getting smaller,” she tells Devex via email. “Declaring this a PHEIC, while mostly for namesake, could bring more attention, resources and vigilance worldwide.”
Prior to the decision, some experts were already saying that the current monkeypox outbreak meets all the criteria for a PHEIC — an extraordinary event with the risk of international spread, potentially requiring a coordinated international response. But some note that declaring it a PHEIC now could be problematic, given monkeypox outbreaks have been occurring in parts of Africa since the 1980s.
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The United Kingdom’s development finance institution — formerly CDC Group, and now British International Investment — is looking like one of the few winners in a U.K. aid strategy designed to align a slimmed-down budget with British economic goals.
William Worley reports that the recently revamped development finance institution is widely seen as the favored development tool of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss despite having faced criticism in the past over lack of a strong anti-poverty focus in its investments — an accusation BII executives have denied.
BII is now also part of a broader portfolio of investment-related assistance tools, collectively known as British Investment Partnerships, or BIP, which came to light in the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s new international development strategy, released in May. Will has the details on what these partnerships might look like.
Read: What will FCDO's British Investment Partnerships do for development? (Pro)
+ Devex Pro subscribers can watch a panel of experts dissect the U.K.’s new international development strategy to better understand its content and impact on global development. Not gone Pro yet? Sign up and start your 15-day free trial.
French media reported last week that the country’s recently appointed minister of state for development, francophonie and international partnerships is under investigation for rape.
The two separate allegations against Greek-born Chrysoula Zacharopoulou stem from her time as a gynecologist in France. She is also facing a third complaint for violent treatment of a patient in 2018. Zacharopoulou released a statement through her lawyer rejecting the “unacceptable and revolting” accusations and saying she “never imposed any exam on any of her patients without their consent.”
As co-chair of the COVAX Shareholders Council, Zacharopoulou impressed European Union officials in Brussels with her advocacy on EU-Africa relations, including as rapporteur of a report on relations between the two continents.
The United Nations Office for Project Services’ fallout continues.
David Ainsworth reports that Finland has cut all its core funding to U.N. initiatives pending an inspection of their risk management mechanisms, according to a statement from the country’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Read: Finland freezes funding to UN agencies in wake of UNOPS scandal
+ Catch up on our coverage of the UNOPS scandal.
G-7 member countries announced Sunday a $600 billion infrastructure and investment plan to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative. [Politico]
The World Trade Organization last week welcomed a historic deal to limit fishing subsidies that contribute to overfishing. [The Guardian]
Tuvalu has pulled out its attendance from this week’s U.N. Ocean Conference after China restricted the credentials of the Pacific nation’s Taiwanese delegates. [RNZ]
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