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What is the Problem Represented to be? USAID’s Reproductive Health Policies in the Aftermath of the Global Gag Rule

Scheibach, Andrea LU (2019) STVK12 20191
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Being the largest bilateral donor for reproductive health assistance, USAID has played a significant role in shaping the global reproductive governance. This thesis is therefore interested in how USAID represents the issue of reproductive health in its development policies. The thesis is designed as a qualitative single case study, analysing USAID’s policy documents about reproductive health from the introduction of the Global Gag Rule in 2017 up to 2019. The analysis is based on the ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ framework by Bacchi and draws upon Morgan and Robert’s theory of reproductive governance theory, as well as Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and regimes of truth. The paper aims to critically dissect USAID’s... (More)
Being the largest bilateral donor for reproductive health assistance, USAID has played a significant role in shaping the global reproductive governance. This thesis is therefore interested in how USAID represents the issue of reproductive health in its development policies. The thesis is designed as a qualitative single case study, analysing USAID’s policy documents about reproductive health from the introduction of the Global Gag Rule in 2017 up to 2019. The analysis is based on the ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ framework by Bacchi and draws upon Morgan and Robert’s theory of reproductive governance theory, as well as Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and regimes of truth. The paper aims to critically dissect USAID’s discourse on reproductive health, studying the rationalities and governmentalities USAID’s reproductive governance are built upon. The findings suggest that the dominant problem representations are that reproductive health is a problem of lack of access, supply and knowledge. USAID’s policy discourse reproduces the neoliberal logic on ‘development’, motherhood and women empowerment, silencing local and feminist knowledge, as well as ignoring structural and sociocultural barriers to reproductive health. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Scheibach, Andrea LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
reproductive governance, reproductive health, family planning, USAID, problem representation, global gag rule
language
English
id
8977824
date added to LUP
2019-09-06 09:10:03
date last changed
2019-09-06 09:10:03
@misc{8977824,
  abstract     = {{Being the largest bilateral donor for reproductive health assistance, USAID has played a significant role in shaping the global reproductive governance. This thesis is therefore interested in how USAID represents the issue of reproductive health in its development policies. The thesis is designed as a qualitative single case study, analysing USAID’s policy documents about reproductive health from the introduction of the Global Gag Rule in 2017 up to 2019. The analysis is based on the ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ framework by Bacchi and draws upon Morgan and Robert’s theory of reproductive governance theory, as well as Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and regimes of truth. The paper aims to critically dissect USAID’s discourse on reproductive health, studying the rationalities and governmentalities USAID’s reproductive governance are built upon. The findings suggest that the dominant problem representations are that reproductive health is a problem of lack of access, supply and knowledge. USAID’s policy discourse reproduces the neoliberal logic on ‘development’, motherhood and women empowerment, silencing local and feminist knowledge, as well as ignoring structural and sociocultural barriers to reproductive health.}},
  author       = {{Scheibach, Andrea}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{What is the Problem Represented to be? USAID’s Reproductive Health Policies in the Aftermath of the Global Gag Rule}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}