War, Humanitarian Crises, Population Displacement, and Fertility : A Review of Evidence

Fertility and reproductive health issues more broadly have tended to be of low priority in humanitarian crises. Public attention is drawn by information concerning the magnitude of refugee flows, of death tolls, and of numbers of injuries. Reproductive health has been regarded as a longer term issue that could safely be put on the back burner during the crisis phase of an emergency, when issues of providing adequate food, clean water, and shelter, plus treating acute infectious diseases of crowding, take priority. This report reviews what evidence there is concerning the effects of humanitarian crisis on fertility, with a view to identifying common patterns that may exist across settings and be of value in guiding responses to future crises. Cover......Page 1 Preface......Page 8 Contents......Page 12 INTRODUCTION......Page 14 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK......Page 15 LIKELY EFFECTS OF HUMANITARIAN CRISES THROUGH INTERMEDIATE VARIABLES......Page 17 DATA SOURCES......Page 18 FERTILITY MEASURES......Page 21 EVIDENCE OF IMMEDIATE FERTILITY EFFECTS......Page 22 EVIDENCE OF MEDIUM-TERM FERTILITY EFFECTS......Page 27 LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES......Page 35 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......Page 37 REFERENCES......Page 39 ANNEX: RAW NUMBERS UNDERLYING FIGURES 1 TO 3......Page 42 ABOUT THE AUTHOR......Page 45 Includes Statistical Data. Kenneth Hill ; [presented To] Roundtable On The Demography Of Forced Migration Committee On Population, And Program On Forced Migration And Health At The Mailman School Of Public Health, Columbia University. Includes Bibliograpical References, P. 26-28.