Jakarta Globe, Thalif Deen, May 22, 2013
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A person displays strips of contraceptive pills. (AFP Photo/Mychele Daniau) |
When
thousands of participants from around the world gather in Kuala Lumpur next
week, the primary focus will be on health and empowerment of girls and women.
The
meeting, scheduled for May 26-30 under a banner titled Women Deliver, will zero
in on a longstanding unanswered question: how does the international community
meet the massive unmet needs for contraception by over 222 million women in the
developing world?”
The UN
Population Fund (UNFPA) points out that increased contraceptive use and reduced
unmet needs for contraception are central to achieving three of the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals — improving maternal health, reducing child
mortality and combating HIV/AIDS — heading toward the 2015 deadline.
Sivananthi
Thanenthiran, executive director at the Malaysia-based Asian-Pacific Resource
& Research Center for Women (Arrow), told IPS the ability to decide the
number, timing, and spacing of their children is one of the most fundamental
rights individuals and couples can have.
Currently,
she said, it is estimated 222 million women have an unmet need for family
planning, and in many countries most women still continue to have more children
then they desired.
“Investing
in reproductive health and reproductive rights requires investment in a number
of interventions by UN agencies, governments and donors,” she added.
Since UNFPA
began operations back in 1969, the average global fertility has been cut in
half. UNFPA says it has been a “critical catalyst” in this success by
responding to requests by developing countries.
Asked how
best the contraceptive needs could be met, Dr. Purnima Mane, president and
chief executive officer of Pathfinder International, told IPS the United Nations
and the international community need to continue advocating for increased
funding — domestic and international — for access to contraception and for the
integration of family planning into universal health coverage in all possible
forums and through broader partnerships across sectors.
While it is
true that investments in women’s education are essential to this effort, she
said, much more needs to happen to change the situation of women.
Community-oriented
work to change social norms around gender and enabling social and economic
policies are essential to prevent early marriage, to keep girls in school, and
to help women to space their births and give birth safely, when they want to
bear children, said Mane, who heads an organization described as the global
leader in sexual and reproductive rights.
She argued
that based on historical evidence, political will is, and will be, the most
critical element of success for strong family planning programs.
“However,
we need to be vigilant about the voluntary nature of such programs and the
quality of the care provided,” Mane added.
At this
time, she said, the most critical priority is for the global community to come
together to address the contraceptive and sexual and reproductive health
information and service needs of the growing youth population of over three
billion under the age of 25.
“There is
no easy fix and we all know that. What we need is to address the multiple
factors that impact on this issue rather than focus on any one aspect alone,”
she said.
The Kuala
Lumpur meeting, the third Women Deliver conference launched originally in 2007,
is touted as the largest global event of the decade — primarily of government
leaders, policymakers, healthcare professionals, representatives of
non-governmental organizations, corporate leaders, and global media outlets.
The event
will include a Youth Pre-Conference, a Minister’s Forum and a Parliamentarians
Forum.
Asked about
investments in reproductive health, Thanenthiran told IPS these include
interventions around delaying the age of marriage and the age of first
pregnancies, which include investments in girls’ education especially at the
secondary and tertiary levels.
Interventions
such as making available a range of contraceptive methods and ensuring women
receive the right information so that they can make informed choices about the
method that best suits them.
Health
service providers should also treat women with kindness and providing quality
care and service are essential in increasing trust towards family planning
programs, she added.
Naturally
this requires funding and political commitment, but the health of women and
girls is well worth safeguarding, Thanenthiran added.
Asked how
the United Nations’ post-2015 economic agenda could underline reproductive
health,Mane told IPS human rights principles of the International Conference on
Population and Development (which took place in Cairo in 1994) can be embedded
constructively in a variety of ways in the new set of development goals.
But given
that the relevant MDGs are especially lagging, “more explicit attention to the
unfinished agenda is needed as we go forward.”
Population
dynamics are also often left out of important discussions about future needs
and development scenarios. For example, population growth may be mentioned but
not in relation to access to contraception as a solution, she added.
She said
universal health care is a start, if coverage of the broadest range of sexual
and reproductive health care is explicitly included to move the unfinished
agenda forward.
“Only then
will we achieve sustainable development,” she said.
“My
organization, Pathfinder International, stands behind confronting inequality by
advocating with other civil society partners for better governance which not
only addresses inequality but holds policymakers accountable for failing to
address preventable deaths among women and children,” Mane declared.
Thanenthiran
said it is essential that access to comprehensive, quality sexual and
reproductive health services, as promised to women and committed to by
governments in the Cairo ICPD Program of Action, is prioritized in the
post-2015 development framework.
The ICPD
Program of Action (PoA) is going to be 20 years in 2014, and women are yet to
enjoy in full the promises made to them during that time, she pointed out.
In the
MDGs, some attention was given to the agenda under MDG 5 (on improving maternal
health), and those working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and
rights are hoping to see a more comprehensive approach with more reproductive
health issues and indicators being covered in the new goal on reproductive and
maternal health.
This would
be the best way to go about to ensure government commitments to the ICPD are
fulfilled, and initial investments made during the MDGs are continued and fully
realized in the new development framework, she declared.
Inter Press Service
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…
Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?
The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].
Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”