Global Financial Crisis Should Not Hinder Efforts to Improve Health

The global financial crisis should not be allowed to prevent further investments in health and human well-being, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Ph.D., executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA; New York, NY, USA).

In a statement delivered to the opening ceremony of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, Dr. Obaid called for the funding gap for reproductive health, especially family planning, to be urgently addressed to meet development goals, improve health, and reduce poverty. The lack of such social investment, she warned, will be most acutely felt in the poorest countries, and will most severely affect those who are socially and economically the most underprivileged, particularly poor women and girls.

Dr. Obaid also called on governments to increase resources for reproductive health and to finance all areas of the Program of Action approved by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. This includes data collection, analysis, development planning and monitoring, as well as the 2010 round of censuses. For 2010, the UN Secretary-General's report estimates that US$64.7 billion is needed for population programs. Only one third of this, about $21.7 billion, is expected as donor assistance, resulting in a huge gap. This is expected to be accompanied by developing countries whom have been are projected to mobilize about $25.7 billion from their domestic resources in 2010.

"Today, there are 215 million women in the developing world with unmet need for effective contraception,” said Dr. Obaid, an international women's rights advocate from Saudi Arabia who holds a doctorate degree in English Literature and Cultural Anthropology. "And in both southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the largest number of maternal deaths occur, fewer than half of all births are attended by skilled health workers. Now is the time to make universal access to reproductive health an economic, social, and political priority.”

Related Links:
United Nations Population Fund