Maternal Health Conference Examines Progress, Challenges; Pushes Donors Towards $12 Billion Funding Increase

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The world’s largest conference on women’s health and empowerment in more than a decade opened today with a call to increase funding commitments for maternal, reproductive and newborn health by $12 billion each year. This increase was kick-started with a pledge from the Gates Foundation of  $1.5 billion over the next five years for family planning, maternal and child health and nutrition in developing countries.

At Women Deliver 2010, more than 3,000 representatives from nearly 140 countries will highlight the urgent need to save the lives of the hundreds of thousands of women who die from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes each year, citing new economic rationale for investing in women.

“To make development aid more effective and get more for bang for our buck, we need to invest more in the health and rights of women and girls. And we need to be practical and listen to women themselves about what they need,” Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said just before the opening of the first day of Women Deliver. “This is one of the greatest causes of our time. Now is the time to deliver for women!.”

“Women deliver enormous social and economic benefits to their families, communities, and nations,” said Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver. “We’ve made great progress on maternal health in many areas of the world, but our leaders need to realize that this issue is at the core of global development, economic well-being, and even national security. When women survive, families—and societies—thrive.”

Women Deliver is expected to feature United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, UNFPA Executive-Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan, Melinda Gates, Arianna Huffington, Christiane Amanpour, Ashley Judd and Christy Turlington. The attendance of the United Nations Secretary-General together with the heads of five United Nations agencies will be unprecedented for a non-United Nations conference, according to organizers of Women Deliver.

The meeting’s location in Washington, D.C. represents the return of the United States as a strong partner in promoting global maternal and reproductive health according to organizers. The conference comes at a critical moment, three weeks before the G-8 Summit, where host country Canada has made it a major focus.

Cost-effective solutions to prevent maternal deaths already exist. The Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA estimate in a report that ensuring access to modern contraception could prevent up to a third of maternal deaths. An estimated 215 million women worldwide want to avoid or delay pregnancy, but are not using effective contraceptives. Ensuring access to skilled care before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth, including emergency obstetric care, is another critically needed solution. Access to safe abortion, when and where legal, will also help to reduce maternal mortality; currently nearly 70,000 women die each year from unsafe abortion according to the report.

Governments and donors have consistently underfunded maternal and reproductive health issues. As a result, few developing countries are on track to meet Millennium Development Goal 5, which aims to reduce maternal death by three quarters and ensure universal access to reproductive health by the year 2015.

Addressing the current maternal and neonatal death rates and massive unmet contraceptive needs with proven interventions would cost $24 billion per year, or just $4.50 per capita worldwide, about double the current level of investment. Such an investment would save 70 percent of the women’s lives and 44 per cent of the newborn lives currently lost. Benefits would extend beyond health, to improving the stability and economic prosperity of societies and nations.

“We know what needs to be done to save women’s lives, and everyone has a stake,” said Women Deliver conference Co-Chair Fred Sai of Ghana. “We are calling on governments to double today’s investment in maternal health— a small price to pay that would yield extraordinary return. In a world of difficult problems, here is a major challenge we can rise to, and overcome.”

Leaders at Women Deliver are expected to underscore the priority of funding health services for women and girls worldwide. When women are healthy, they can participate fully in their communities and countries, young women can continue their education, and all women can have the opportunity to become leaders.

***

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. www.unfpa.org

About Women Deliver

Women Deliver 2010 is a global conference bringing together leaders from around the world to call for action against maternal death. The conference will highlight achievements in reducing maternal mortality, breakthroughs in reproductive technology, the role of women’s health in development, and remaining obstacles to improving maternal health around the world. The conference’s 3,000 participants, including heads of state, ministers of health and leading maternal health advocates, will call on governments, donors, and multi-lateral organizations to increase their financial commitments to women and girls. For more information on Women Deliver, visit: www.womendeliver.org

Contact Information:

Women Deliver:
Lindsay Crouse, lcrouse@globalhealthstrategies.com, Tel: +1 401 741 4523

UNFPA:
Katja Iversen, iversen@unfpa.org, Mobile: +1 917 403 3063