Removing extreme poverty by 2015 is under threat
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《英国医生杂志》
More resources need to be put into basic health services for the world抯 most marginalised people if targets to alleviate extreme poverty agreed by world leaders 10 years ago are going to be met, says a report from the United Nations Population Fund.
And despite some progress in improving the quality and reach of reproductive health services in poor countries, more than 500 000 women continue to die each year from largely preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth, according to the report.
Poverty is the main risk factor for obstetric complications. The chance of a woman dying in pregnancy or childbirth in West Africa is 1 in 12, compared with a 1 in 4000 risk among women in developed countries.
"The issue has not been given high priority and the global number of deaths per year has not changed significantly since 1994," says the report.
The report is a review of the progress made by developing countries to implement a landmark action plan to address issues contributing to poverty and ill health. The plan was agreed at the international conference on population and development in Cairo in 1994. Altogether 179 countries adopted the plan, which linked the alleviation of poverty to concentrating resources on women抯 rights and access to reproductive health.
Halfway towards the 2015 deadline to implement the plan many developing countries have put population concerns into national development agendas and established laws to protect women抯 and girls?rights, says the report. But although there have been improvements in some health services, gender bias and inadequate resources are undermining further progress.
In particular, family planning services, strategies to prevent HIV infection, reproductive health information, and services for adolescents remain inadequate and a low priority in many poor countries. Statistics illustrate the problem:
More than 350 million couples still lack access to a full range of family planning services
Five million new HIV infections occurred in 2003, half of them in women
The world抯 population will increase from 6.4 billion at present to 8.9 billion by 2050
The population of the 50 poorest counties will triple in size to 1.7 billion
Some 2.8 billion people, or two in five, live on less than $2 a day.
According to the report, donors agreed to provide $6.1bn (?.4bn, �5bn) a year to fund population and reproductive health programmes by 2005, a third of that needed to fully implement the plan. But in 2002 (the latest year for which figures are available) contributions stood at just at $3.1bn, half that promised.
"Ten years on from the ICPD , the world needs its vision of human-centred development more than ever. Today抯 challenges—including security concerns, the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS, and persistent poverty alongside unprecedented prosperity—make it imperative to carry out the Cairo agenda so that its dream of a better future for all is realized," says the report.(London Zosia Kmietowicz)
And despite some progress in improving the quality and reach of reproductive health services in poor countries, more than 500 000 women continue to die each year from largely preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth, according to the report.
Poverty is the main risk factor for obstetric complications. The chance of a woman dying in pregnancy or childbirth in West Africa is 1 in 12, compared with a 1 in 4000 risk among women in developed countries.
"The issue has not been given high priority and the global number of deaths per year has not changed significantly since 1994," says the report.
The report is a review of the progress made by developing countries to implement a landmark action plan to address issues contributing to poverty and ill health. The plan was agreed at the international conference on population and development in Cairo in 1994. Altogether 179 countries adopted the plan, which linked the alleviation of poverty to concentrating resources on women抯 rights and access to reproductive health.
Halfway towards the 2015 deadline to implement the plan many developing countries have put population concerns into national development agendas and established laws to protect women抯 and girls?rights, says the report. But although there have been improvements in some health services, gender bias and inadequate resources are undermining further progress.
In particular, family planning services, strategies to prevent HIV infection, reproductive health information, and services for adolescents remain inadequate and a low priority in many poor countries. Statistics illustrate the problem:
More than 350 million couples still lack access to a full range of family planning services
Five million new HIV infections occurred in 2003, half of them in women
The world抯 population will increase from 6.4 billion at present to 8.9 billion by 2050
The population of the 50 poorest counties will triple in size to 1.7 billion
Some 2.8 billion people, or two in five, live on less than $2 a day.
According to the report, donors agreed to provide $6.1bn (?.4bn, �5bn) a year to fund population and reproductive health programmes by 2005, a third of that needed to fully implement the plan. But in 2002 (the latest year for which figures are available) contributions stood at just at $3.1bn, half that promised.
"Ten years on from the ICPD , the world needs its vision of human-centred development more than ever. Today抯 challenges—including security concerns, the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS, and persistent poverty alongside unprecedented prosperity—make it imperative to carry out the Cairo agenda so that its dream of a better future for all is realized," says the report.(London Zosia Kmietowicz)