Ten media practitioners from India, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan attended a two week workshop entitled “Media and Reproductive Health: Strategies for Advocacy and Action” held from 21 April to 03 May in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The workshop was sponsored and organized by Leadership Development Mechanism (LDM) Program of the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Himmat Society, an NGO based in Lahore, Pakistan and implemented in collaboration with Asia-pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development.

The aim of the workshop was to highlight the role of media to focus on issues related to reproductive health and concerns in the context of gender relations to formulate strategies of advocacy. Ms Maxine Olsen, who has the rare distinction of being both the Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia, based in Kuala Lumpur formally inaugurated the workshop. In her inaugural address Ms Olsen applauded the commitment shown by the organizers and the participants for responding to the challenge of reproductive health in developing countries through more efficient, accurate, non-discriminatory and sensitive reporting and representations by the media.

The workshop content covered the scope of the reproductive health encompassing the key concepts of gender and health. As an outcome of this project, the media practitioners formulated plans for publications such as newsletters and realistic proposals to either produce programmes, or write articles that would disseminate awareness on gender and reproductive health, and population issues, once they return to their respective countries.

The consultants for this specific workshop were Ms. Moneeza Hashmi and Kausar S. Khan from Pakistan, along with a team of distinguished academicians and media practitioners from Malaysia, namely Datuk Dr Raj Karim, Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dr Kiranjit Kaur, Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, University Technology MARA, Dr Shanti Balraj Deputy Dean, Post graduate studies, School of Communication University Science Malaysia and Dr Wong Yut Lin, Associate Professor Health Research Development Unit, University of Malaya.

During the course of the two-week training, the participants were able to interact with local media professionals and from various local NGOs. They visited Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), followed by a briefing session by the producers on programmes that were telecasted on reproductive health. ‘Doctor and You’, ‘Global’ and ‘Point of View’ were stated as regular series, which dealt with reproductive health issues. At the New Straits Times of Malaysia, the participants had discussions with the editors of the women’s and youth columns/sections and were able to ascertain how the Malaysian print media responded to various problems related to gender and reproductive health. The study visit to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the East and Southeast Asia and Oceania Region (ESEAOR) based in Malaysia provided them with an understanding of IPPF’s network on reproductive health education, counseling on responsible parenthood and its struggle to out law the discriminatory and derogatory practices against women and children, along with development of community participation projects, within the international family planning movement, for its successful application.

During the first week of workshop, participants familiarized themselves with terms such as health as a social issue, the importance of equality and equity in health care and the vulnerability of women. They became familiar with some fundamental concepts of gender, and related them with reproductive health, explored the concept that reproductive health issues are rights issues and the importance of self-awareness in professional work.

At the session titled “Reproductive Health including family planning”, Dr Raj Karim said that, “Reproductive Health issues cover a very wide spectrum of issues such as poverty,

unemployment and empowerment. Without alleviating poverty one can not tackle the issues related to reproductive health”. She highlighted the abortion practices in the region and how these states approached this controversial issue.

Participants learnt that of the work done by Dr Wong Yut Lin, through a Malaysian case study on the Women’s Access to Gender-Sensitive Reproductive Health services. She said, “Though women are more empowered in Malaysia, the most developed country in ASEAN region, the male dominancy issue is still as evident as in other parts of the world.” “Women undervalue their own health needs and due to socioeconomic constraints avoid seeking gynecological care from male doctors, she added.

Talking about the Media’s role in Reproductive Health issues, Dr Kiranjit Kaur said, “Malaysian media enjoys 50 per cent participation of women journalists, but there was also a need to sensitize them on gender issues. Reproductive health issue has not taken off in print media, in particular, and electronic media, in general.” During the second and last week of the workshop, Dr, Shanti Balraj, moderated three different sessions, focusing on gender, media and reproductive health: exercising a strong advocacy role. The objectives of these sessions were to create an understanding of gender roles and responsibilities, assisting media in integrating gender in their programs and policies to create an understanding and awareness of advocacy concepts and strategies among media practitioners.

In order to better understand gender issues, she asked the participants to draw happy and sad family illustrations separately with explanations. This exercise helped participants to vividly comprehend the concepts and approaches, among each other, about the issues of gender, vividly. They were also asked to describe the roles and expectations of society from the point of view of men and women, that how have those roles changed from previous generations and how have they affected men and women individually, in the family and in the society.

The Population and Environment Communication Center (PECC) of the Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SDPI) was represented by this scribe and a presentation was given on “The state of vernacular press in Pakistan and its role on advocating RH and gender issues”. The presentation was well received by the participants and the attending resource persons and media practitioners gave encouraging remarks.

Finally, Moneeza Hashmi, the moderator of the workshop concluded the academic sessions with an action plan regarding the issues. She asked two groups to come up with proposals on how to make a more effective and better coverage of issues related to reproductive health and gender. Group A, consisting of Gabriela Granados (Mexico), Aminu Sarki (Nigeria), Mohsin Babbar, Rauf Arif and Khawar Ghumman (Pakistan), suggested a proposal to sensitize media practitioners on gender and reproductive health. The group suggested that the media, which included advertisement, alternate, print and electronic, should be sensitized on these issues through trainings, literature provision, through newsletters and research, discussion fora and seminars.

Comprising Bello Sule (Nigeria), Simin Raheel, Waseem Abbasi (Pakistan) and Soumi Das and Arum Kumar (India), Group B proposed a project that would address the concerns of the youth population. Objectives of this proposal included informing and educating the youth on reproductive health issues and encouraging them to use of contraceptives as a method to prevent unwanted pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and as a tool for birth spacing.

Participants agreed upon some of the proposed strategies and recommendations to overcome the absence of watered down approach of reproductive health and gender issues in the media. As journalists and mass communicators, media personnel should disseminate messages by introducing them in clear and simple languages for better and easy understanding of the target audiences. Controversial issues regarding reproductive health should be covered through a balanced and scientific approach. Media practitioners should advocate the need for new and progressive reproductive health legislation, and they should try to integrate women issues in the treatment of other social issues. The remaining stakeholders should assist in the capacity building of media practitioners and ensure the provision of information and data through research, trainings and seminars, resource centers inter alia. At the closing ceremony held on 03 May 2003 H E Nasim Rana, High Commissioner for Pakistan to Malaysia, presented certificates to the participants.