I

IASC

InterAgency Standing Committee. It is the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance. It is a unique forum involving the key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners.

IATI   

International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is the voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve the transparency of aid in order to increase its effectiveness in tackling poverty.

ICM – International Confederation of Midwives

International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) is an accredited non-governmental organisation that represents midwives and midwifery to organisations worldwide to achieve common goals in the care of mothers and children. ICM supports, represents and works to strengthen professional associations of midwives throughout the world. (www.internationalmidwives .org)

IMCI

Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses.

ICPD

The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was the UN conference held in Cairo in 1994 that was noted as the first population conference to move away from setting demographic targets towards emphasizing people's needs for, and rights to, sexual and reproductive health. It also emphasized the importance of women's interests and rights as components of development.

IDA

International Development Association, part of the World Bank Group which provides highly concessional loans and grants to Low Income Countries.

IDPs

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are persons or groups who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes, in particular as a result of or to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

Immune deficiency

The breakdown or inability of certain parts of the immune system to function, thus making a person susceptible to certain diseases that they would not ordinarily develop.

Immune System

The body's natural defense against disruption caused by invading foreign agents (e.g. microbes, viruses).

Implants

Regarding contraception, they are a set of silicon capsules containing synthetic progesterone that are inserted in the upper arm as a means of birth control. They can be worn for a few years.

Impotence

Inability of a man to have or sustain an erection.

Immigration

Immigration refers to the process of entering a country from another to take up permanent or semipermanent residence.

In-migrants

The migrant person with respect to the person's new or current place of residence, also known as immigrant

Incidence, HIV

HIV incidence (sometimes referred to as cumulative incidence) is the number of new cases arising in a given period in a specified population. UNAIDS normally refers to the number of adults aged 15-49 years or children (aged 0–14 years) who have become infected during the past year. In contrast, HIV prevalence refers to the number of infections at a particular point in time, no matter when infection occurred, and is expressed as a percentage of the population (like a camera snapshot).

Incidence rate (IR)           

The number of new cases of a health problem or disease in a specified time that occurs in a population at risk of the disease in the same time period. The rate is expressed per 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000.

Indicators

The numerical measure which, when recorded, collected, and analyzed, makes complex concepts more readily measurable and allows managers and evaluators to compare actual programme results with expected results.

Indirect estimation

Because most developing countries do not have reliable vital statistics systems, their fertility and mortality has to be estimated from surveys and censuses. Particularly the census information usually does not come in the format required for conventional demographic estimates. Consequently, indirect methods have to be used in order to convert the census data into regular demographic indicators.

Infant Mortality Rate

Infant Mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants under age 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year.

Infertility

The inability of couples of reproductive age, who are having sexual intercourse without contraception, to establish pregnancy within a specified period of time.

Infibulation

Narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and appositioning the labia minor and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris. Classified by WHO as FGM/C Type III. See FGM/C.

Informed choice

The voluntary decision by a client to  accept a sexual and reproductive health service, including using or not a contraceptive method after receiving adequate information regarding options, risks, advantages and disadvantages of all available procedures, services and methods.

Intergenerational relationships

As defined in the scientific literature, the terms ‘intergenerational relationships' and ‘cross-generational relationships' refer to relationships with a 10-year or more age gap between sexual partners. The term ‘age-disparate relationships' generally refers to relationships in which the age gap between sexual partners is 5 years or more.

Internal migration

Movement of people from one area of a country to another for the purpose or with the effect of establishing a new residence. The migration may be temporary or permanent.  Internal migrants move but remain within their country of origin (e.g. rural to urban migration).

International migration

Movement of persons who leave their country of origin, or the country of habitual residence, to establish themselves either permanently or temporarily in another country.  An international frontier is therefore crossed.

International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)

IPPF is a non-governmental organization that provides sexual and reproductive health information, education and services through 65,000 service points. Those services include family planning, abortion, maternal and child health, and STI and HIV treatment, prevention and care.

Intervention

The term ‘intervention' means different things in different contexts. In medical treatment, an intervention may save a person's life. When describing programmes at the community level, use of the term ‘intervention' can convey ‘doing something to someone or something' and as such undermines the concept of participatory responses. Preferred terms include ‘programming', ‘programme', ‘activities', ‘initiatives', etc. The word ‘intervention' occurs in three other definitions: structural interventions, health care interventions, and health care strengthening. Its use in these contexts is appropriate.

Intrauterine device IUD

A long-term, reversible method of contraception, involving the insertion of a small flexible device of metal/plastic/hormonal materials into the uterus.

Intrinsic growth rate

The intrinsic growth rate of a population is the growth rate exclusively due to birth and death processes, unaffected by external migration and related not to the actual age structure but by the age structure of the population that would result if current fertility and mortality levels were to continue indefinitely.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF)          

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the procedure in which eggs (ova) from a woman's ovary are removed, fertilized with sperm in a laboratory procedure, and then the fertilized egg (embryo) is returned to the woman's uterus