Sexual, Reproductive and Menstrual Health of Internally Displaced Women and Girls in the Middle East: Gaps, Challenges and Recommendations

This paper reviews the grey and peer-reviewed literature to evaluate gaps, challenges and current responses relating to the sexual, reproductive and menstrual health needs of women and girls impacted by internal displacement in the Middle East

Published on November 14, 2022

Andisheh Jahangir | hidn, IDPs, Gender, Conflict, Health, Middle East, MENA Region

Yemen. A displaced woman walks to the AlSouda site for IDPs in AlDhalea. 2022 © UNHCR/Ahmed Al-Mayadeen

The Middle East, prone to conflict and disasters, is the host of the largest internally displaced populations in the world, with more than seventeen persons experiencing displacement in 2021. Therefore, providing practical, sustainable, culturally appropriate and acceptable sexual, reproductive and menstrual health services for women and girls should be integral to responses to internal displacement. This document identifies gaps, challenges and current responses in the Middle East and provides recommendations for improvement in the answers in the context of the Middle East.

Andisheh Jahangir holds a Master of International Public Health from the University of Sydney. She has worked with an NGO, WoMena, based in Denmark and Uganda, in Menstrual and Reproductive Health and with the WHO Country Office in Iran. Currently, she works with Relief International, an International Humanitarian NGO in Iran.

This paper was written by the author for the 2022 Summer School on Internal Displacement in the Middle East – “Crisis, Displacement and Protection” – run by the Middle East Research Network on Internal Displacement, the Lebanese American University Institute for Migration Studies and the Internal Displacement Research Programme at the Refugee Law Initiative.

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