The maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high in Africa. Forty per cent of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide occur in Africa. On average, over 7 women die per 1,000 live births. About 22,000 African women die each year from unsafe abortion, reflecting a high unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive use among women in union varies from 50 per cent in the southern sub-region to less than 10 per cent in middle and western Africa" UNFPA
Early and unwanted childbearing, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy-related illnesses and deaths account for a significant proportion of the burden of illness experienced by women in Africa. Gender-based violence is an influential factor negatively impacting on the sexual and reproductive health of one in every three women. Many are unable to control decisions to have sex or to negotiate safer sexual practices, placing them at great risk of disease and health complications.
According to UNAIDS, there is an estimated of 22.2 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan African in 2009, which represents 68% of the global HIV burden. Women are at higher risk than men to be infected by HIV, their vulnerability remains particulary high in the Sub-Saharan Africa and 76% of all HIV women in the world live in this region.
In almost all countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged between 15-24. Not only are women more likely to become infected, they are more severely affected. Their income is likely to fall if an adult man loses his job and dies. Since formal support to women are very limited, they may have to give up some income-genrating activities or sacrifice school to take care of the sick relatives.
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In addition, the number of people with access to antiretroviral therapy increased by 63% in the last 24 months—AIDS-related deaths fell by more than 25% between 2005 and 2011 globally.
The impact of not accessing family planning in Namibia can be seen in the daily occurrence of baby dumping and teenage pregnancies, according to Mary Hangula of the National Planning Commission.
Source: CNN
When Babatunde Osotimehin last year became the head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- the international development agency promoting female rights -- the news didn't go down too well with many women working in the field.
Fifteen million babies globally are born prematurely each year and one million of them die, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Up to ¾ of maternal deaths could be avoided by enabling access to emergency obstetric care, says MSF. Mothers’ lives can be saved for less than the cost of a loaf of supermarket bread.
Given the news dominating the headlines this week (CIA sex scandals and an increasingly Orwellian surveillance apparatus), it is unsurprising that a report published by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), The State of the World Population 2012, received little attention. And yet, underpinning the report is a paradigm shift in how the world body conceptualizes and articulates family planning: not as a privilege, but as a fundamental human right.
More than 150 women in Zalingei, Central Darfur, took part in a three-day training aimed at raising awareness of the negative health consequences and human rights violations associated with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Abortions are illegal in Swaziland and have resulted in criminal convictions, but in October 2012 more than 1,000 women were treated for abortion-related complications at a single clinic in the country’s second city Manzini, says the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS), a family planning organization.
Access to family planning is an essential human right that unlocks unprecedented rewards for economic development, says new UNFPA report.
Cut off from development by five decades of civil war, South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world and high levels of infant mortality and morbidity. Large families struggle to get by in the war-ravaged new nation.
The need for family planning in developing countries is the focus of this year's World Population Report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).