Investing in women's health pays off

Investing in women’s sexual and reproductive health pays huge returns in medical benefits and could save more than a million lives a year, a leading health policy expert said on Tuesday.

Dr. Sharon Camp, president of the Alan Guttmacher Institute which promotes women’s health, said providing services for the 200 million women around the globe who need them would cost about $3.9 billion but could prevent 1.5 million maternal and infant deaths each year.

It would also avert 52 million unintended pregnancies and prevent 505,000 children from losing their mothers, according to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund and the New York-based AGI.

“It has a very long-term development impact,” Camp said in an interview.

But rich countries, particularly the United States, have failed to live up to financial commitments they made at a 1994 conference in Cairo on population and development.

“As a result we are actually losing ground in some countries,” Camp added.

The report is the first study of its kind to synthesize all the research of the last 25 years on the return on investment in sexual and reproductive health programs.

Demand growing
Developed countries are committing only about half of what they promised at the Cairo meeting a decade ago. Meanwhile, demand for the services, which include providing contraceptives, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and maternal and infant health care, is growing.

“Our report makes it clear that the global community can well afford to make the additional investment needed to close the gap in sexual and reproductive health,” Camp told a news conference.

Sexual and reproductive health accounts for one-third of the global burden of disease among women, while HIIV/AIDS accounts for six percent. The need is greatest among the poorest.

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Keeping women healthy and providing contraceptives to delay childbirth and allow couples to have smaller families also contributes to economic growth and equality, according to the report.

“Money invested in sexual and reproductive health services will be repaid many times over,” said Dr. Thoraya Obaid, executive director of UNFPA.

When U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2000 he withdrew funding for the New York-based UNFPA. The Bush administration argued that by working in China the UNFPA was sustaining a Beijing policy of forced abortion in pursuit of its “one child per family” program.

But the UNFPA said its programs are run in Chinese counties where the policy is not pursued.

“We hope it (the report) will reach the Bush administration and also members of the U.S. Congress who appropriate funds,” said Camp.

“We also hope it will reach European donor governments. Even though they are doing better than the United States in meeting their pledges, none of them are where they committed to be in 1994.”