United Press International - October 12, 2005
Jesse Ellison

In its annual report on the state of world population, released Wednesday at U.N. World Headquarters, the UNFPA pushed for equal rights for women and an end to gender-based violence. Strongly advocating for the provision of family planning to women around the world, the report, "The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Goals," said, "Reproductive rights are central to human rights" and emphasized these rights as paramount in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

"The title is 'The Promise of Equality,' and that title pretty much speaks to its message," Maria Jose Alcala, a UNFPA spokeswoman, told United Press International Monday.

"We've had many promises made by the governments of the world about the equal rights of women and girls since the United Nations was founded over half a century ago, and it's the fulfillment of that promise of equal rights that holds the key to solving many of today's global challenges.

Said Alcala: "Women and young people the world over are a majority of countries' populations, but they generally lack power, they lack voice, and when countries are drawing up national plans of spending priorities, these two key groups are often overlooked. The area of reproductive health for poor countries, and especially for poor women and adolescent girls, poses a tremendous burden on their health, on their productivity, and on a country's prospects of escaping poverty."

The report says reproductive health problems are the leading cause of death and disability for women around the world, with a woman dying every minute from the complications of childbirth or pregnancy, and another 20 left seriously injured or disabled. Nearly all of these deaths are preventable, and 99 percent of them take place in developing countries, the report said.

Funding for family planning in the developing world has been a hot-button issue since 2001, when U.S. President George W. Bush took office and reinstated The Mexico City Policy, which requires that in order to receive funding from the United States, non-governmental organizations can neither advocate for nor perform abortions. Organizations that refused, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, lost U.S. funding.

"There is no change to the United States policy whatsoever," Rick Grenell, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations told UPI Tuesday.

But Alcala emphasized the importance of family planning, telling UPI, "Every woman and couple has the right to determine the size of their family, how many children they wish to have, and poor women the world over report that if they were given the option, they would have less children if they had access to family planning."

"Today we've got 200 million women who lack effective access. We know that family planning is key because it's good for women's health, it's good for their effective entry into the workforce, it's good for children's health. A lot of the maternal health problems, when the mother has ill health from too many pregnancies or pregnancy complications, the child either dies or suffers that health as well. So there are a lot of linkages to the importance of family planning for women, for families, and for countries, and it's the poor countries that have the least access to reproductive health."

The report also highlights the prevalence of gender-based violence, saying domestic abuse, rape, sex abuse, female genital mutilation, and honor killings collectively harm as many women and girls between ages 15 and 44 as cancer. UNFPA estimates such violence costs the United States $12.6 billion per year, because of the economic burden placed on courts, police, schools, and losses in educational achievement and productivity.

The report focuses on three key areas for investment: education for girls and women, reproductive health information and services, and women's economic rights.

Globally, nearly twice as many women as men are illiterate, despite evidence demonstrating the benefits of education for girls and women, the report said. Education increases a woman's earning potential, reduces maternal and infant mortality, improves reproductive health overall and is associated with lower rates of HIV, ultimately leading to better health and education for the next generation and benefiting entire communities.

The report said investing in reproductive health is inextricably tied to ensuring gender equality.

"The ability to make free and informed choices in reproductive life, including those involving childbearing, underpins self-determination in all other areas of women's lives. Because these issues affect women so profoundly, reproductive health cannot be separated from the wider goal of gender equality," the report said.

The third investment is in the area of economic opportunities for women.

Worldwide, many women still face discrimination at work. The report cited many countries where women are not allowed to own property, acquire credit, control their income, and sometimes are unable to inherit property even from their husbands.

Finally, many women work in unregulated, sometimes unsafe environments for low salaries, the report said.

Alcala said the UNFPA hopes the report will convince nations to commit to these three areas of investment.

"The world summit, held recently, was the largest, most significant gathering of heads of state," she told UPI. "There they confirmed that gender equality and reproductive health must form part of sound poverty reduction and development strategies, so we're really hoping that when the follow-up plans to the world summit are drawn up, sufficient resources and attention is paid to these three critical areas of women's empowerment, gender equality, and reproductive health."

"We believe that if those investments are not made, in women and young people and reproductive health, there's going to be very valuable missed opportunities, and failure to pay attention to these issues could have repercussions for generations to come," she said. "Making poverty history means making gender inequality history."

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