Prenatal sex selection

Preventing gender-biased sex selection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Publication date : 01/01/2015
Author : UNFPA

Gender-biased sex selection has emerged since the early 1990s as a widespread practice in parts of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region and now constitutes a significant challenge to the countries affected. The preference of many parents for sons, combined with the use of modern technologies and declining fertility, has skewed the normal ratio between male and female births in several countries, mostly in the South Caucasus and parts of South-East Europe.

Caring for Equality

Publication date : 01/01/2015

A manual to work with men, women and youth in the promotion of gender equality and the prevention of prenatal sex selection by World Vision, Promundo and MenCare, 2015. 

To combat prenatal sex selection, World Vision’s work in Armenia focuses on examining and challenging harmful gender attitudes and practices that support son preference. In partnership with Promundo, World Vision has developed this curriculum to work with men, women, and youth to examine, question, and transform social norms.

Happy Fatherhood in Kyrgyzstan

'The role of a father never ends,' reads the note held up by a little boy at the launch of UNFPA in Kyrgyzstan's Happy Fatherhood campaign in the country's Chui region. The campaign has been designed to get fathers to engage more in the upbringing of their children in a region where 40 per cent of surveyed students do not consider their fathers as role models.

Read more about 'Gender norms and practices in the questions of maternal health, reproductive health, family planning, fatherhood and domestic violence' in this report published by UNFPA Kyrgyzstan.