Risks, Rights and Reforms: A 50-Country Survey Assessing Government Actions Five Years After the International Conference on Population and Development.

• Author: Kopera, Eleonor H.
• Position: Review

WEDO, 1999, New York, 251 pp.

By Eleonor H. Kopera

The Women's Environment and Development Organization's (WEDO) most recent publication, Risks, Rights and Reforms, is a comprehensive assessment of the progress made over the past five years in creating and implementing national policies in support of women's health and education. Fifty countries are represented from all over the world. Their results are summed up on an average of two to three pages each, and they are grouped into five sections: Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and North America.

The book is well structured and easy to read. Each country has a "summary" that gives the reader a quick overview of the findings. The box also contains a small world map localizing the country and two symbols that indicate whether the sources of information are the Government or NGOs.

Each country's title is followed by a subtitle indicating the main obstacles to successful health policies and sustainable development. Indonesia's subtitle, for example, reads "Food and Medicines Out of Reach in Crippled Economy", giving the reader an idea...