The challenges of non-governmental organizations in providing reproductive health services to internally displaced persons : a case study of the Marawi, Philippines experience

Abstract

The deadly battle of Marawi erupted on May 23, 2017, in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the Philippines and ended in October 2017. This fatal firefight uprooted 350,000 individuals including 170,000 women and girls who are solely depending on the humanitarian response to fulfill their needs. In terms of reproductive health concern in humanitarian response, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are operating under the leadership of the Department of Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The case study approach focuses on the reproductive health rights of internally displaced persons in the Philippines considering the international mechanisms, and the Responsible Parenting and Reproductive Health Law 2012 of the Philippines. Although it is the government's responsibility to uphold the rights of every citizen of the state, in the case of displacement the international communities' contribution with NGOs to the emergency response is inevitable. This research examines the challenges faced by the NGOs to ensure reproductive services to the internally displaced persons due to Marawi conflict and the prioritization of needs in this humanitarian response. To find out the challenges the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with eight humanitarian organizations including the United Nations Agencies, international organizations and local NGOs in Manila and Iligan city. Collected data analyzed using qualitative methods. The third chapter of this thesis articulated the challenges and the causes that engineers the challenges. The fund constraint, lack of human resources and supplies, duration of martial law, and cultural barriers impacted the Marawi humanitarian response to provide reproductive health services by the NGOs.