UNFPA launches 2017 report

The United Nation Fund for Population Activities or UNFPA has launched the 2017 World Population Report with the call to support country reproductive health system, and rights in an age of inequality.

Speaking at the formal launch of the report Tuesday, 17 October 17, at the UNFPA office at Mamba Point, Country Representative Dr. Oluremi Sogunro said the world is increasingly unequal, but the inequality is not only about money.

The new UNFPA report is titled: “Worlds Apart: Reproductive Health and Rights in an Age of Inequality.” Dr. Sogunro says it’s also about power, rights and opportunities, and it has many dimensions that feed on each other.

According to him one dimension of inequality that has received too little attention is in the enjoyment or denial of reproductive rights and the effects of that on humanity.

The Country Representative adds that example of the impact of inequality on the reproductive rights of women and girls is that Obstetric fistula, a wound that leaves a hole in the birth canal, caused by prolonged, obstructed labour. According to him, this problem has been virtually eliminated in the world’s wealthier countries and in better-off communities within poor countries.

Fistula is preventable and treatable, but persists due to weak health systems, poverty, gender inequality, and early marriage and childbearing. 
Working with other United Nations agencies, partners and governments, UNFPA is committed to a future where zero is the only acceptable number.

It involves zero maternal deaths, zero unintended pregnancies; and Zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child marriage.

For her part, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem says inequality is increasingly about the cans and cannots, adding that poor women who lack the means to make their own decisions about family size or who are in poor health because of inadequate reproductive health care dominate the ranks of the cannots.

In most developing countries, the poorest women have the fewest options for family planning, the least access to antenatal care and are most likely to give birth without the assistance of doctor, or midwife.

She noted that limited access to family planning translates into 89 million unintended pregnancies and 48 million abortions in developing countries annually.

This does not only harm women’s health, but also restricts their ability to join or stay in the paid labour force and move towards financial independence.

“Unless inequality is urgently tackled and the poorest women empowered to make their own decisions about their lives, countries could face unrest and threats to peace and to their development goals,” she says.

The report says the costs of inequalities, including in sexual and reproductive health and rights, could extend to the entire global community’s goals.

By Lewis S. Teh–Edited by Winston W. Parley