PHA-Exch> Gender equality and the right to health (copied as 'fair use')

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Meghana Bahar meghana at haiap.org


The Lancet, Volume 372, Issue 9655, Pages 2008 - 2009, 13 December 2008
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61786-9

Gender equality and the right to health

Hedia Belhadj a, Aminata Touré a
Expanding access to health is fundamental to human security and human
rights. People who are poor daily face health-related insecurity, from
food shortages to limited access to drinkable water, physical violence, or
ignorance about disease prevention. In our globalised world, the
transnational flows of ideas, people, and new lifestyles, but also
diseases, have created new challenges for those who are already left
behind in the journey of human development. The vast majority of them are
women.

Gender dynamics and power balance between men and women in communities and
households have a heavy bearing on the health condition of millions of
women and girls around the world. Women account for half of the 30·8
million adults above 15 years old currently living with HIV. In
sub-Saharan Africa, 61% of adults living with HIV and AIDS are female.1 In
young women and girls aged 15—24 years in South Africa, nearly 15% are
living with HIV and AIDS, compared with 4·5% of young men.2 One in three
women around the world will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex, or
otherwise abused in her lifetime.3

In developing countries, about one-fourth of pregnancies are unintended.4
As a result, every year, 19—20 million women had no other choice than
recourse to unsafe abortion.5 Many of these women die as a consequence;
many more are permanently injured. Maternal health is the largest inequity
in health. Every year, more than half a million women die from
complications of pregnancy and childbirth.6 Large disparities exist
between rich and poor countries and within countries. A woman's risk of
dying from the consequences of pregnancy or childbirth between the poorest
countries and parts of Europe is several hundred-folds.7

The persistent violations of women's rights through harmful practices on
the basis of gender, such as female genital mutilation or cutting, early
marriage, sexual violence, or forced prostitution, further affect women's
health. Violence is heightened during conflicts and natural disasters. All
these findings show that the right to health is largely influenced by the
double jeopardy of age and gender.

In the countdown to 2015 (the deadline for the Millennium Development
Goals [MDGs]), governments and development partners must take accelerated
and coordinated action to meet the health-related MDGs. Progress on the
health-related MDGs is a good proxy for measuring the advancement of
women's rights. The promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment
are crucial interventions to improve women's health and human development,
especially in least-developed countries, where the health MDGs will be
difficult to meet by 2015. It is not only necessary to develop
gender-responsive health policies and programmes, but gender gaps must
also be closed in other areas of development, such as primary and
secondary education, women's access to economic opportunities, or equal
participation to governance.

Concentrated, sustained, and long-term investments are required to allow
women to realise their human rights and improve their social status. All
development actors, including donors and national governments, must live
up to their commitments and deliver for women. Ensuring access to
reproductive health for all, including family planning, could help avoid
up to 35% of maternal deaths.6 Yet funding for family planning has
dramatically dropped, especially in low-resourced countries, where it is
most needed.8


Full-size image (26K) Getty Images
HIV-positive women support each other in a community in Nairobi, Kenya,
December 2006

The world must commit to an international health framework that shapes
universal access to health care. This framework should include provisions
for health education and knowledge sharing, as well as north—south
technology transfer and negotiations to waiver drug patents. The framework
should also emphasise the importance of sexual and reproductive health as
an essential step towards the MDGs.

Today's challenging financial situation calls for cost-effective
development initiatives and international solidarity that includes
communities and women themselves, as elements of change. The right to
health implies concomitantly investing in both health-system
strengthening, including sexual and reproductive health and gender
equality, and in women's empowerment. This dual approach of addressing
health-system challenges and empowering women would give a high return on
the wellbeing of all and development at large.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20081231/e9ad46a6/attachment-0001.html>