WOMEN, HEALTH, AND DEVELOPMENT

By Thoraya Ahmed Obaid Reprint | | Print |

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NEW YORK, Sep 6 2005 (IPS) - From September 14-16, world leaders will meet in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals, writes Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. In this article, Obaid points out that the most successful developing countries in terms of economic growth, less poverty, longer lives, and healthier people were those with slower population growth. And that was achieved not by government directive but by helping ordinary men and women make their own decisions about how many children to have, and when. Now, reproductive health problems account for a third of the burden of disease among women of reproductive age (15-44) worldwide. In Africa, the figure is two thirds. Healthy people make better workers, better workers make stronger economies, and stronger economies allow people to live better and make good choices. Poor women have known this for a long time. To strengthen the Millennium Goals, the Millennium Project team has recommended a new target: universal access to reproductive health by 2015 to be achieved through the primary health care system. At this Summit, leaders will have an unprecedented chance to change women\’s lives, to end poverty, not just in their lifetimes, but in the next few years. And the women of the world will find out if their well-being is a priority or not.

But haven’t we been here before?

There have been many agreements and many failures. The difference is that the Millennium Development Goals are a unifying force that has focused the planning and spending of both rich and poor nations on a common cause. The Millennium Project, undertaken by a group of 265 of the world’s leading development experts, has broken down the eight Goals into reachable targets and realistic indicators of progress, from maternal death to debt problems. They are all based on real-world calculations. Many were generated by the great series of conferences on social issues that took place in the 1990s, among them the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994.

The big shift that took place in Cairo was that demographics met development. Looking back on years of work, the most successful developing countries –successful in terms of economic growth, less poverty, longer lives, and healthier people– were those with slower population growth. And that was achieved not by government directive but by helping ordinary men and women make their own decisions about how many children to have, and when. Given a real choice, most women had smaller families than their mothers. So in less than a generation, average family size in South-east Asian countries fell from over five to less than three. The same thing is happening now in other countries across the world, from Brazil to Bangladesh.

The key word is “real”. Choice means that women and men can make up their own minds about what to do and have the information and the means to do so. The successful countries invested heavily, for example, in education, and made sure that girls as well as boys went to school. Literacy is empowerment. The simple ability to fill in a form or read instructions opens up a new world for women. The more education a woman has, the more she is able to build her life to her own design, not by accident or someone else’s decisions, and the more she can contribute to the well-being of her family, her community, and her country.

There is a two-way relationship between economic growth and health, says the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London: ”Life expectancy and adult survival rates exercise a positive impact on human capital formation and hence on economic growth. In turn, sustained growth rates allow for better health conditions.” In plain English, that means that healthy people make better workers, better workers make stronger economies, and stronger economies allow people to live better and make good choices.

Poor women have known this for a long time. Or rather, they know that ill-health means they can’t work, and then the whole family suffers; for women aren’t just breadwinners in poor families, they are cooks, nurses, cleaners and child-care experts, too. When the World Bank asked poor women what they feared most, ill health was the first thing they mentioned.

The biggest single cause of ill health among poor women is maternity: pregnancy, childbirth, and the period immediately afterwards are the most dangerous times of a woman’s life. A Tanzanian mother about to give birth would call her children together and bid them all farewell: ”I am going on a journey, and I may not return.”

Things are not much better today. According to the World Health Organization, reproductive health problems account for a third of the burden of disease among women of reproductive age (15-44) worldwide. In Africa, the figure is two thirds.

Over half a million women die from pregnancy-related causes each year, nearly all of them in low-income countries. Many did not want to be pregnant in the first place. Merely providing women in poor countries with the information and means to choose the size and spacing of their families — a right that has been theirs for nearly 40 years — would save 126,000 women’s lives every year. It would avoid many times that number of maternal illnesses and injuries. It would keep families healthy that would otherwise fall apart — a child whose mother dies is twice as likely to die itself.

To strengthen the Millennium Goals, the Millennium Project team has recommended a new target, universal access to reproductive health by 2015 to be achieved through the primary health care system.. The proposal has strong backing from Member States, both rich and poor. Of course, reproductive health is a sensitive issue in many countries where its components are not well understood.

Essentially, reproductive health is about the life and death of poor women and depends very much on the political decision of each leader.

Of course, reproductive health is a sensitive issue in many countries where its components are not well understood. Essentially, reproductive health is about the life and death of poor women and it is very much a political decision for each leader.

At the 2005 World Summit, those leaders will have an unprecedented chance to change women’s lives, to end poverty, not just in their lifetimes, but in the next few years. This September the women of the world will find out if their well-being is a priority or not. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)