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Trading Women's Health and Rights

Trading Women's Health and Rights

Marceline White | Alaka M. Basu | Debra Lipson | Sajeda Amin | Doctor Lin Tan | Zhenzhen Zheng | Yueping Song | Catalina Denman Champion | Sandya Hewamanne | Priya Nanda | Pranitha Maharaj | Benjamin Roberts | Nancy Gerein | Caren Grown | Elissa Braunstein | Anju Malhotra

(2008)

Additional Information

Abstract

Around the world, policymakers and civil society are debating how economic and trade policies shape public health. This edited collection adds a new dimension to this debate. It synthesizes research from a variety of disciplines to analyse how the liberalization of international trade affects reproductive health and rights. Case studies from Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Egypt illuminate how trade-related changes in women’s employment influence their reproductive needs and capacities. The book demonstrates how global and national trade policies affect the quality, quantity, and cost of reproductive health services. Contributors also explore the implications of the World Trade Organization and the various trade agreements under its purview for reproductive health services and rights. Ultimately, this collection addresses the key policy issues for advocates of both reproductive health and rights and economic justice, and shows how trade agreements weighted against the poor in the South have very specific gendered consequences. This book is aimed at an inter-disciplinary audience of economists, public health professionals, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and women’s studies specialists. It will also be of interest to policymakers and representatives of civil society organizations working on health, economic justice, and employment issues.
'This excellent collection of papers that address concrete trade and health issues in specific countries within a conceptual framework that pretty much makes sense of it all...Trading Women's Health and Rights? sets out its premises at the outset and follows through with illuminating case studies, careful analysis, and a lot of information about trade agreements and their health consequences that are unlikely to be known to population specialists. To the editors and authors of what must have seemed at the outset a most formidable task, Salud!' Ruth Dixon-Mueller, Book reviews
Caren Grown is co-director of the Gender Equality and the Economy program at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and formerly Director of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Governance Team at ICRW. Anju Malhotra is group director of social and economic development at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Elissa Braunstein is an assistant professor of Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover Cover
Contents iii
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
List of Abbreviations x
Preface xiii
Introduction: Reproductive Health, Trade Liberalization and Development 1
Definitions 2
Pathways between the Liberalization of Trade and Reproductive Health 6
Conclusion and Organization of the Volume 11
Note 12
Reference 12
PART 1 Conceptual Overviews: Direct and Indirect Linkages 13
1. Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health: A Framework for Understanding the Linkages 15
Introduction 15
Pathways between Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health 17
Direct Pathways: Trade Agreements and Provision of Reproductive Health Services 29
Indirect Pathways: Trade Liberalization, Women’s Employment and Reproductive Health 34
Conclusion 39
Notes 40
References 42
2. Implications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services for Reproductive Health Services 47
Introduction 47
International Trade and Health: a Framework for Analysis 48
GATS Rules and Their Application to Health Services 50
GATS and Reproductive Health Services in Developing Countries 53
Reproductive Health Services Issues in the WTO GATS Negotiations 59
Reproductive Health Advocacy in the Context of GATS Negotiations 62
Notes 65
References 67
3. Women’s Work, Autonomy and Reproductive Health: The Role of Trade and Investment Liberalization 69
Introduction 69
Bargaining and Autonomy in the Household 71
Investment Liberalization and Women’s Autonomy 81
Conclusion 86
Appendix: A Theoretical Model of Women’s Bargaining Power 87
Notes 90
References 91
PART II Country Case Studies on Trade Liberalization, Women’s Employment and Reproductive Health 95
4. Implications of Trade Liberalization for Working Women’s Marriage: Case Studies of Bangladesh, Egypt and Vietnam 97
Introduction 97
Country Case Studies of Trade Liberalization 99
Discussion 115
Notes 116
References 117
5. Trade Liberalization, Women’s Migration and Reproductive Health in China 121
Introduction 121
Trade Liberalization and Labour Migration 125
Women, Rural–Urban Migration and the Private Sector 128
The Impact of Women’s Migration and Employment on Their RH 129
Conclusion 141
Notes 141
References 142
6. Local Response to Global Development: An Emerging Culture of Health among Pregnant Women in Mexican Maquiladoras 143
Introduction 143
Background 145
The Study 150
Conclusion 158
Notes 161
References 161
7. Runaway Knowledge: Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Practices among Sri Lanka’s Garment Factory Workers 164
Introduction 164
Trade Liberalization, the FTZ and the‘Respectable Woman’ 168
Knowledge versus Practice – Unwanted Pregnancies and Abortions 176
As the Cart that Follows the Bull 179
Conclusion 181
Notes 183
References 185
PART III Trade Liberalization and Government Capacity to Deliver Reproductive Health Supplies and Services 189
8. I Would Pay, if I Could Pay in Maize: Trade Liberalization, User Fees in Health and Women’s Health Seeking in Tanzania 191
Introduction 191
Trade, an Ailing Economy and Resources for Health Care 193
Rationalizing User Fees: Deficit in the Health Sector Revenue 195
Women’s ‘Unmet’ Reproductive Health Needs 198
Data and Methodology 200
Living on the Margins and a Gender Dimension of User Fees 201
Conclusion 208
Notes 209
References 210
9. Tripping Up: AIDS, Pharmaceuticals and Intellectual Property in South Africa 212
Introduction 212
The Status and Impact of the AIDS Epidemic 214
Intellectual Property and AIDS Treatment 216
Patently Defiant: South Africa versus the ‘Big Pharma’ 221
Contested Realities: South Africa and the TAC 224
Towards Comprehensive HIV Prevention: A Directional Shift 226
Conclusion 228
Notes 230
References 231
10. Midwifery and Nursing Migration: Implications of Trade Liberalization for Maternal Health in Low-Income Countries 235
Introduction 235
Background 236
Current State of Maternal Health 236
The Importance of Midwives and Nurses forMaternal Health 237
The Size and Causes of Migration 238
The Effects of Midwife and Nurse Migration 243
Free Trade and Migration 248
Policy Issues for Key Stakeholders 250
Conclusions 254
Notes 255
References 256
PART IV Policy and Advocacy 259
11. Trade Agreements and Reproductive Health and Rights: An Agenda for Analysis and Advocacy 261
Introduction 261
Entry Points for an Effective Advocacy Strategy 263
National Level Advocacy 269
Strategic Alliances 271
Conclusion 273
Reference 273
12. Reproductive Health Advocacy 274
Introduction 274
The Difficulties with General Advocacy 279
A Framework for Effective Advocacy 287
Conclusion 293
Notes 293
References 295
About the Contributors 297
Index 300