Women Deliver 2010: Ministers’ Forum Statement

1.2 Women drive economic development.

Women operate most small businesses and farms; they are the sole income earners for a quarter to a third of all households.[ii] A woman’s income is more likely than a man’s to go toward food, medicine, education, and other family needs. Women’s unpaid work — farming, managing their homes, caring for children and others — equals about one-third of the world’s GNP.[iii]

1.3 When women survive, families thrive.

Saving mothers saves children’s lives. A mother’s death or disability greatly raises the chances her newborn and her other children will die before age five. The World Health Organization says family planning and skilled prenatal and delivery care are among the six most cost-effective health interventions possible in low- resource countries.[iv]

2.  Maternal deaths are preventable. We have cost-effective solutions.

2.1  No woman should die giving life.

We have made great progress, and maternal deaths are declining in many places. But the rate is going up in others, and far too many women still die needlessly from pregnancy- related complications: at least one every 90 seconds, or 350,000 to 500,000 per year. [v] 

Overall health funding from all sources worldwide is up sharply since 2002, however 53 percent goes to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. In the developing world, only US$2.25 per capita goes for all other health services, including family planning and maternal and child health.[vi]

2.2 There is global consensus on these health solutions:

2.2.1 Family planning programs: Ensuring access to modern contraception to every woman who needs it could prevent up to 70 percent of maternal deaths. The unmet need for family planning is alarming: more than 215 million women who want to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using effective contraception.  Each dollar spent to provide modern contraceptives saves $1.40 in medical care costs because fewer women have unintended pregnancies.  [vii]

2.2.2 Skilled care before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth, including emergency obstetric care, for mothers and newborns, can save millions of lives. In every country, rich and poor alike, 42 percent of all pregnancies experience complications, and in 15 percent of pregnancies the complications threaten life.[viii]

2.2.3  Safe abortion, when and where legal. Complications from the world’s 19.7 million yearly unsafe abortions are a major public health problem in developing countries.[ix] Three million of the estimated 8.5 million who need care for subsequent health complications do not get it.[x] Based on current maternal mortality estimates 30,000 to 45,000 women die needlessly every year from unsafe abortions. [xi]

 2.3  Delivering these solutions requires policy action:

2.3.1 Prioritize young people. Half of humanity is under the age of 25, the largest youth generation in history.

• They are ready for action and mobilizing for their rights, but they can’t do it alone:
• More than half of all young people live in poverty, on less than US $2 per day. [xii]
• Family planning gives young women options for their lives beyond childbearing.
• Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among young women in the developing world.[xiii]
• Reducing unintended pregnancies among young women and girls would allow them to stay in school and work, raising their status and productivity.
• Comprehensive sexuality education will help improve sexual and reproductive health for young women and men so as to ensure their present and future.

2.3.2  Strengthen national health systems that deliver for women. The care and services that women need will benefit every citizen, family, and community.  

• Sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS continue to raise the global need for comprehensive reproductive health care education and services.
• The global shortage of health care personnel is growing: the developing world needs 2.5 million more of them and 1 million more community health workers.
• Half of Earth’s 6.8 billion people now live in urban areas, many in slums without adequate shelter or basic services such as clean water and sanitation.[xiv]
• Improving health systems to provide life-saving care for women and newborns also strengthens their capacity for responding to accidents, natural disasters, and the health needs of the general population.

2.3.3 Advance, implement and protect the human rights of women and girls. If women’s rights are not human rights, then the phrase human rights has no meaning.  

• Ensuring gender equality in education, law and custom; protection from gender-based violence; and an end to harmful traditional practices are essential if women and girls are to realize their full potential and contribute to their communities and nations.
• Access to family planning is critical to the fundamental right of families and individuals to choose the number and timing of their children.

3.  With an additional $12 billion per year, the world can deliver for girls and women.

3.1  Political courage is required. Fighting discrimination against women challenges tradition and existing power structures, but it is a long-term investment in more prosperity for all.  Programs and laws to address cultural and political barriers to maternal and newborn health care and gender equality, can only succeed if they are publicly supported at the highest levels of Government and enforced.

3.2 Invest in women—it pays. It is not only the right thing to do, it is sound economics. When women are healthy, they can work. They deliver for their families, communities and nations. Providing access to both family planning and maternal and newborn care to all women in developing countries who need them would cost $24 billion per year by 2015, or double today’s investment. [xv]It would save 70 percent of the women’s lives and 44 percent of the newborn lives currently lost. [xvi]

3.2.1 The cost of not investing in women grows every year: in 2004 UNFPA estimated that every US$1 million shortfall in funding for reproductive health care – including contraceptives, condoms and medical equipment – led to some 360,000 unintended pregnancies, 150,000 induced abortions, 800 maternal deaths, 11,000 infant deaths and 14,000 additional deaths of children under five.

3.2.2 Providing each pregnant woman in the developing world with quality, lifesaving care would cost an average of only $123  ($43 for antenatal care; $75 for delivery, newborn, and postpartum care; and $5 for post-abortion care.)[xvii]

3.2.3 Letting women decide whether, when, and how many children to have tends to reduce average family size. This will save on public-sector spending for health, water, sanitation, and social services, and reduce pressure on natural resources.

3.2.4 Expanding comprehensive sex education and use of contraceptives, especially condoms, would reduce transmission rates for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, lowering health costs and curbing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

3.2.5 Girls who have access to education tend to marry later and have fewer children, protecting their health and enabling them to fulfill their potential.

Endnotes: 

U.S.  Agency  for  International  Development,  Congressional  Budget  Justification  FY2002:  Program,  Performance,  and  Prospects­?  The  Global   Health  Pillar.  http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/cbj2002/prog_perf2002.html.  As  cited  in  Gill  K.,  et  al  Women  Deliver  for  Development,     Background  Paper  for  the  Women  Deliver  conference.  FCI  and  ICRW,  2007