Maternal mortality claims the life of one woman every minute
Updated
Maternal mortality claims the life of one woman every minute. A top family planning advocate has warned despite decades of work, reproductive health is still not seen as a priority in many developing countries. Doctor Gill Greer is Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which works through member associations with some of the world's most marginalised people. Doctor Greer says none of the Millenium Development Goals can be met unless things change .
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speakers : Doctor Gill Greer, Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation
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GREER: 15 years ago, 179 governments promised to address issues of sexual reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, women's right to choose the number and spacing of their children and the rights of young people but in fact donor governments are delivering 33 per cent of what they promised and interestingly enough for family planning alone which is probably the most effective health and development intervention there is funding has dropped as a percentage of health funding from 55 per cent in 1995 to 5 per cent in 2007. So it shouldn't suprise us really that a woman dies every minute from maternal mortality because family planning alone will reduce that rate of death by 40 per cent. In country, I think part of it is that these issues are not seen as a priority, women's health, child health, infant health, certainly not adolescent health, people find it even difficult to talk about. And so many developing countries are still spending a tiny fraction of their budget, firstly on health and secondly even less on these areas which they don't regard as such high priority. So I remember years ago in the Pacific for example, Ministers of Health would be interested in funding for tertiary health, for hospitals, secondary health but not for good basic primary health care and good basic sexual and reproductive health services.
MOTTRAM: And that hasn't changed?
GREER: That hasn't changed.
MOTTRAM: So the implications for development must be enormous?
GREER: It's extraordinary that when the world is struggling to meet the development framework of the Millenium Development Goals, that firstly MDG5, improving maternal health is most off target and the second part of that which is universal access to reproductive health is scarcely ever mentioned. This will prevent the other MDG's being realised. It will prevent elimination of poverty, sustainable development, whether we're talking about Africa, whether we're talking about the Pacific - countries like Papua New Guinea, where we've seen maternal mortality double in recent years, where we see very low contraceptive prevalence, where for example in Timor Leste you have one of the lowest uses of contraception and as a result the fourth highest fertility rate in the world.
MOTTRAM: How do you tackle for example, Timor Leste, which is also intensely Catholic, what's the approach got to be to get over the hurdle that that introduces?
GREER: I've always asked myself how is it that Italy and Spain and France have the lowest birth rates in Europe. You know, good Catholics use condoms, good Catholics use contraception. They regard this as an individual matter between them and their maker, a matter of their individual conscience, not a matter for the state to interfere in the bedroom. It's about private choices. Think of Brazil, Brazil is a Catholic country and look at what changes it has driven in terms of sexual reproductive health, including recognising issues related to men who have sex with men and the movement of HIV and AIDS. Think of Colombia, Peru, they recognise these are issues of public health. When we confuse morality and public health the result is maternal mortality and it's a tragic result and it's needless.
