Women Die While Goals Not Achieved

More than half a million women over the world every year die during pregnancy or childbirth, and over 90 per cent of these largely preventable deaths occur in developing countries, a United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) report revealed last week.

"This is the most off-track of all (the eight) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," the report cited.

This information is shown in MDG 5 with its target of improved maternal health.

Maternal deaths between 1990 and 2005 have seen a less than 7 per cent decrease - a reduction in the maternal mortality ratio from 430 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 400 in 2005.

This rate, roughly less than 0.4 per cent per year at the global level, falls far short of the 5.5 per cent annual reduction in maternal deaths required to achieve the international target, according to recent estimates by the World Health Organisation.

But the report points out that one in four women who die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth could be saved by effective access to contraception.

It said the real causes behind these deaths were that women lacked the decision-making power to choose to use reproductive health services, they lacked the financial resources to access them, or their families or even the women themselves might be unwilling to pay for accessing the services because of women's low status and a lack of understanding of the importance of reproductive health care.

"Women's empowerment, and health education which targets men and other decision makers in the community, are needed to overcome these barriers," the report urged.

MDGs - ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 - form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanised unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest.

The recent report was entitled 'Making the MDGs Work for All: Gender-Responsive Rights-Based Approaches to the MDGs'.

"This publication highlights gender equality and woman empowerment to implement MDGs and to achieve the MDGs. We cannot achieve MDG implementation without gender equality and women empowerment," said Dr Jean D'Cunha, Regional Programme Director, Unifem East and Southeast Asia Regional Office.

The publication's MDG 6, focusing on combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, found that among all adults living with HIV/Aids, the global percentage of HIV infected women has increased from 45 per cent in 1990 to 50 per cent in 2007.

Furthermore, as many as three of every five adults living with HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

MDG 4, aiming to reduce child mortality, cited that the probability of a child dying before its fifth birthday is higher for girls than boys in South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. Not only are the causes of child mortality (disease, malnutrition) linked to women's heath and education,but if girls do not survive at equivalent or higher rates than boys, this can be a sign of specific gender-based discrimination.

To date, one in five members of parliament worldwide are women. However, the report said it would take 40 years for women to reach the 'parity zone' of 40 to 60 per cent of seats in national assemblies in developing regions at the present rate of increase. MDG 3 relates to promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, which is central to the achievement of all the other MDGs.

Another interesting item in the publication is that of the estimated 72 million primary-age children not in school in 2005, 57 per cent were girls, and this percentage may be an underestimate, though the global net enrolment ratio has increased from 80 per cent in 1991 to 88 per cent in 2005.