PHA-Exchange> UNFPA RELEASE: Women Fall Victims as Family Planning Resources Dwindle, Warns UNFPA

[Marcy Bloom]

UNFPA RELEASE: Women Fall Victims as Family Planning Resources Dwindle,
Warns UNFPA

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Women Fall Victims as Family Planning Resources Dwindle, Warns UNFPA

10 April 2007

UNITED NATIONS, New York - The drastic decline in funding for family
planning has created victims in the developing parts of the world, said
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations
Population Fund. The proportion of funds allocated to family planning in all
population assistance has dropped from 55 per cent in 1995 to 9 per cent in
2004, said Ms. Obaid. This represents a fall from $723 million in 1995 to
$442 million in 2004 in absolute dollar terms. 


"The victims of this funding gap," said Ms. Obaid, "have been poor women in
poor countries who cannot exercise their reproductive rights and plan their
families. It is a serious problem that needs to be urgently addressed." 

Today, she noted: "There are 200 million women in the developing world with
unmet need for effective contraception. The result is increasing numbers of
unwanted pregnancies, rising rates of unsafe abortion, and increased risks
to the lives of women and children." 


Ms. Obaid said that investing in sexual and reproductive health services
will be repaid much more in savings on other health and social services.
Those resources will also go a long way in boosting economic growth and
gender equality, reducing poverty, and helping to fight the economic and
social devastation of HIV/AIDS. 


In an address to the United Nations Commission on Population and Development
today, Ms. Obaid cautioned that although funding for population assistance
was on the rise, it was below current needs. Since 1994, she noted, health
costs have increased substantially, particularly with the
larger-than-expected scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while the value of the
dollar has dropped. 


Ms. Obaid called on countries to increase investments to implement the
Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population
and Development (ICPD). She also underlined the benefits of reproductive
health care, including family planning, saying, "it is estimated that
ensuring access to family planning alone would reduce maternal deaths by 20
to 35 per cent and child deaths by 20 per cent." 


During the same meeting, Hania Zlotnik, Director of the United Nations
Population Division, said that between 1950 and 1987, the world population
had doubled, from 2.5 billion to 5 billion persons. "If human life on earth
is to remain sustainable," she warned, "earth's population will never double
in size." 


Commenting on the ability of individuals and couples to determine the number
of their children, Ms. Zlotnik said, "fertility reductions result in smaller
families and allow parents to invest more on each child." 


Ms. Obaid also called for more world attention to the large youth
populations in the least developed countries. "If we are to stand any chance
whatsoever of achieving the development goals and building a better world
for all," she said, "we must reach out to young people. And we must do so
urgently and with open arms." 


"To have a healthy and productive ageing population," concluded Ms.
Obaid, "we must ensure that we have a healthy and productive young
population. Together, they will make development of societies a reality, so
that we do have a world that is fit for all ages." 



***



UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development
agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life
of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using
population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure
that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is
free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and
respect. 


 

Contact information: 
 
Omar Gharzeddine
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5028
Email: gharzeddine at unfpa.org