New UNFPA Report Says Women Hold the Key to Solving Climate Change
Washington, November 18 – Climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or industrial carbon emissions, according to a new United Nations report issued today. State of World Population 2009, from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, shows that it is also an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity.
Released in more than 100 world capitals in anticipation of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, the report shifts the climate change debate from abstractions and technical science to the realities of the ways that individuals and the world’s population influence and are affected by climate change.
Subtitled “Facing a changing world: women, population and climate,” the report shows that climate change relates differently to women, men, boys and girls, and differently among countries around the world, and even within nations.
In London, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid noted that environmental damage “is one of the most inequitable risks of our time.” The carbon footprint of the poorest billion people on Earth is 3 percent of the world’s total, yet it is the poor, especially poor women, who will bear the disproportionate brunt of climate change, she said.
“For many people, especially poor women in poor countries, climate change is here and now,” she said. “Women work hard to keep their households together. They fetch the water, find the food and the fuel to cook it, and clean up afterwards. They watch their children’s health and care for their illnesses. In recent years, both food and fuel have been harder to find. The available water carries parasites. Malaria is creeping into areas that used to be mosquito-free. And floods, rising seas and drought present growing challenges.”
The report recommends that countries invest in green technology and reduce emissions, but says they should also empower women to make their own decisions and be involved in public decisions that affect their lives. Nations should invest in women by ensuring alternatives to wood and imported fuel; secure clean water supplies; better roads; access to education for girls; and access to health care, including reproductive health services, especially for women, the report said.
“Helping women to make their own decisions about family size would protect their health, make their lives easier, help put their countries on a sustainable path towards development – and ensure lower greenhouse-gas emissions in the long run,” Obaid said.
The report includes a supplement, At the Frontier: Young People and Climate Change, featuring profiles of young people who are already facing the challenges of a warming world.
Report author Robert Engelman of the Worldwatch Institute will keynote the Washington launch, along with U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY); UN Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth; Karen Hardee, vice president of research at Population Action International; and Jose Miguel Guzman, chief of the population and development branch in UNFPA’s technical division.
Additionally, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid and the participants at the Washington briefing participated in an audio conference call.
Girls and Women Deprived of Health Care at Key Moments, WHO Report Says November 9 – Societies around the world continue to fail to meet the health care needs of girls and women at key moments in their lives, particularly in adolescence and in older age, according to a new report by the World Health Organization released today.
The report Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda illustrates that women provide the bulk of health care, but rarely receive the care they need. For example, it notes that in many countries, sexual and reproductive health services tend to focus exclusively on married women and ignore the needs of unmarried women and adolescents. Few services cater for other marginalized groups of women such as sex workers, intravenous drug users, ethnic minorities and rural women.
"It's time to pay girls and women back, to make sure that they get the care and support they need to enjoy a fundamental human right at every moment of their lives, that is their right to health," said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
The report also notes that women live longer than men but these extra years are not always healthy. For example, while HIV, pregnancy-related conditions and tuberculosis are major killers of women aged 15 to 45, noncommunicable diseases become major causes of death an disability after 45 years.
Additionally, women’s health suffers from their lower socio-economic status, lack of access to education and decision-making abilities. For example, in the case of HIV/AIDS the risk posed by a biological difference is compounded in cultures that limit women’s knowledge about HIV and their ability to negotiate safer sex.
"We will not see significant progress as long as women are regarded as second-class citizens in so many parts of the world," Dr Chan said. "In so many societies, men exercise political, social and economic control. The health sector has to be concerned. These unequal power relations translate into unequal access to health care and unequal control over health resources," she added.
The report outlines how policy change and action are needed within the health sector and beyond. It notes how strategies to improve women's health must also take full account of gender inequality and address the specific socioeconomic and cultural barriers that prevent women from protecting and improving their health. Among the key areas for reform: identifying mechanisms to build strong leadership with the full participation of women's organizations, strengthening health systems to better meet women's needs throughout their lives, leveraging changes in public policy to address how social and economic determinants of health adversely impact women, and building a knowledge base that would allow a better tracking of progress.
Lawmakers Commit to Women’s Health and Rights by 2015 Addis Ababa, October 28 – Legislators and ministers from 115 countries today reaffirmed their commitment to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, noting its indispensable role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In observing the 15th year since the ICPD, more than 400 global lawmakers converged at the 4th International Parliamentarians Conference on the Implementation of ICPD to discuss ways to promote the ICPD Programme of Action.
“Some progress has been made,” the delegates agreed, but progress in many countries has been slow. “The urgency to act has been heightened by conflicts, foreign occupation and emerging issues, including climate change, demographic challenges, environmental degradation, and the food and financial crises.”
Participants unanimously adopted the Addis Ababa Statement of Commitment, in which they pledged to “break the silence” around gender discrimination and to promote sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. They pledged to devote at least 10 per cent of national budgets and development assistance budgets to population assistance, and to review laws and practices that still restrict access to sexual and reproductive health.
The Addis Call to Urgent Action for Maternal Health, which recommends several steps to achieve MDG5 by 2015 and was adopted on Tuesday by the High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health – MDG5 was presented at the conference.
The Parliament of Ethiopia hosted the meeting at the United Nations Conference Centre here. The event was organized by the Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development (FAAPPD) and UNFPA, along with European, Asian, and Inter-American parliamentarians’ groups.
A series of events have been held around the world to assess progress around the ICPD, including the the Global NGO Forum held in Berlin, Germany in September.
Urgent Action Needed on Maternal Health, Global Leaders Affirm
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Addis Ababa, October 27 – Family planning emerged as key to improving maternal health this week at a gathering here of more than 150 delegates from around the world.
The High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health – Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) sought to push maternal health higher on national political agendas and to increase political and financial commitment to achieve MDG5, which is lagging behind.
The Addis Call to Urgent Action recommends several steps to achieve MDG5 by 2015, including:
- Prioritize family planning, one of the most cost-effective development investments. “If we ensure access to modern contraception,” affirmed the delegates, “we can prevent up to 40 per cent of maternal deaths.”
- Make adolescents a priority by investing in their health, education and livelihoods; and
- Strengthen health systems, especially sexual and reproductive health care. If a health system can deliver for women, it is a strong one that benefits all, according the participants.
The Addis Call to Action was presented at the opening of the Fourth International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, which is taking place here at the United Nations Conference Centre.
UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, in her keynote speech, stressed that action to improve maternal health needs to be accelerated. “To improve maternal health, we need to scale up and deliver a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health information, supplies and services,” she said.
We know what it would cost to meet our goals, she added, “And sadly, we know the cost of too little action. It would cost the world $23 billion per year to stop women from having unintended pregnancies and dying in childbirth, and to save millions of newborns.”
The one-day event was organized by Bert Koenders, Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and was hosted by the Government of Ethiopia.
Abortion Rates Fall Worldwide, Report Says
LONDON, October 14 -- Abortions and unintended pregnancies continue to decline worldwide as contraceptive use increases, yet unsafe abortion still causes some 70,000 deaths each year, according to a new report released today by the Guttmacher Institute.
The report, Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress, said abortions fell from an estimated 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003. The decline came alongside a global trend toward liberalizing abortion laws. Nineteen countries have reduced abortion restrictions since 1997, while only three have increased them.
This trend “is fundamentally good news—the world is moving in the right direction,” said Sharon Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. However, more than 40 percent of the world’s women still live in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, virtually all in the developing world, she added. “Legal restrictions do not stop abortion from happening, they just make the procedure dangerous.”
The report recommends expanded access to modern contraceptives and improved family planning services; expanded access to legal abortion; and improved coverage and quality of post-abortion care.
“The gains we’ve seen are modest in relation to what we can achieve. Investing in family planning is essential—far too many women lack access to contraception, putting them at risk,” Camp said.
U.N. Commemorates ICPD at 15 NEW YORK, October 12 -- The U.N. General Assembly commemorated the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) today.
During the day's events, Wellington Webb, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations addressed the U.N. The statement re-endorsed the Programme of Action and expressed strong support for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
Mr. Webb also highlighted President Obama's Global Health Initiative – a six-year, $63 billion effort that emphasizes global health as an essential element of U.S. foreign policy. In announcing the initiative, president Obama said, “We cannot fix every problem. But, we have a responsibility to protect the health of our people, while saving lives, reducing suffering, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere.” Mr. Webd added, "reproductive health and family planning are essential aspects of this effort." The full statement can be read here.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid also made a statement, where she called on "all governments to make the health and reproductive rights of women a financial priority." Ms. Obaid said, "By ensuring universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, to all, rich or poor, women can manage the number and spacing of their pregnancies. This will accelerate progress to achieve all of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly MDG 1 to end extreme poverty." The full statement can be read here.
Lancet Editorial: Contraception Could Help Address Climate Change September 18 – The respected British medical journal The Lancet today called for providing contraception to the world’s 200 million women who currently lack access to it as a way to “slow population growth and reduce demographic pressure on the environment.”
The lead editorial in this week’s edition said the developing countries that are least responsible for rising greenhouse gas emissions are likely to experience the heaviest impact of the climate change that results, with women bearing the greatest toll. “In tandem with other factors, rapid population growth in these regions increases the scale of vulnerability to the consequences of climate change,” the editorial said. “For example, food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, and human displacement.”
The editorial discussed the recent Global Partners in Action NGO Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Development, which was held in Berlin 2-4 September to assess 15 years of progress since the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.
In an earlier Lancet comment August 28, forum organizers described “selective and uneven” achievements on women’s health since 1994. “The right to the highest attainable standard of health, particularly sexual and reproductive health, continues to elude millions of people, especially the poor and marginalized. Statistics speak for themselves,” the article said.
The current editorial urged the sexual and reproductive health and rights community to take action on behalf of the world’s women: “With less than three months to go, the UN Copenhagen conference on climate change provides an opportunity to draw attention to the centrality of women,” it said.
“The sexual and reproductive health and rights community should challenge the global architecture of climate change, and its technology focus, and shift the discussion to a more human-based, rights-based adaptation approach. Such a strategy would better serve the range of issues pivotal to improving the health of women worldwide.”
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