An additional investment of $79 billion in low and middle income countries by 2030 can help avoid 400 million unplanned pregnancies, and save 1 million lives and generate $660 billion economic benefits, according to the State of World Population Report 2024
UNFPA’s flagship report, State of World Population Report, states that millions of women and girls have not been reaping advantages owing to reasons like who they are or where they were born, racism, sexism, etc. The report is titled, “Interwoven Lives, Threads of Hope: Ending inequalities in sexual and reproductive health and rights”.
The report states that if an additional $79 billion is invested in low and middle income countries by 2030, around 400 million unplanned pregnancies can be avoided, and it could save 1 million lives and generate $660 billion economic benefits. Facilating women’s equality can double the contribution of women to global GDP, and can lead to an addition of $12 trillion to global GDP in a span of ten years. Reducing intimate partner violence will boost productivity and income in the present and the future and it will have a long lasting impact on generations. It is estimated that intimate relationship violence costs globally 5% of the GDP.
800 women die every day giving birth, and the trend has remained unchanged since 2016. A quarter of women cannot deny sex to their partners and about one in 10 women cannot decide on their own contraception. Women’s bodily autonomy is diminishing in about 40 per cent countries with data.
The improvements in health care have mostly benefited wealthier women and women of ethnic groups that have existing access to health care. LGBTQIA+, ethnic minorities, migrants and refuges, women and girls with disability, HIV inflicted and disadvantaged caste face greater sexual and reproductive health risks and unequal access to sexual and reproductive health care. This vulnerability is further exacerbated by factors like climate change, humanitarian crises and mass migration.
In India, inequalities exist in the maternal health arena. Referring to India’s 640 districts, the report states that “while nearly one third of districts have achieved the SDG goal of reducing maternal mortality ration below 70 per 100,000 live births, 114 districts still has ratios of 210 or more deaths per 100,000 live births (Goli and others 2022).”
The Tirap district in Arunachal Pradesh has a large percentage of indigenous people and has the highest rate of death with 1,671 per 100,000 births. Event though, it is difficult to segregate the percentage by socio- economic status, ethnicity, caste or religion, these factors do influence the health parameters.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director, says, “In the space of a generation, we have reduced the unintended pregnancy rate by nearly one fifth, lowered the maternal death rate by one third, and secured laws against domestic violence in more than 160 countries.”
However, there is a silver lining, despite the pool of challenges. In India, the number of maternal deaths has declined from 26 percent of the global sum in 1990 to 8 per cent in 2020 due to increase in the number of female physicians. The achievements so far has been that between 2000 and 2020, global maternal mortality has declined by 34 per cent, birth among girls aged 15- 19 has declined by around a third since 2000, women using modern contraception have doubled since 1990 to 2021, 162 countries have passed laws against domestic violence, and “the number of new HIV infections in 2021 was almost one third fewer than in 2010”.
Kanem adds, “Despite this progress, inequalities within our societies and health systems are widening, and we have not adequately prioritized reaching those furthest behind. Our work is incomplete but not impossible with sustained investment and global solidarity."
The differentiations come in myriad of forms in different geographies: an African woman experiencing pregnancy and childbirth is around 130 times more likely to die from them than a woman in Europe and Northern America; countries under humanitarian crises and conflicts, experience over half of all preventable maternal deaths, which is about 500 deaths per day; and African descent women across America have more chances of dying while giving birth than a white women, in US the rate is three times higher than the national average.
The report states through the medium of collective action the problems can be dealt with. For the next 30 years, to be inclusive, we must march towards, “comprehensive, universal and inclusive sexual and reproduction health care and guaranteeing rights for all”. Making targeted health systems that takes care of economic, social, political and environmental injustice woes will be helpful.