Press Statement
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Additional Investments in Family Planning would
save Developing Countries More than $11 Billion a Year and save lives of
Tanzanian Women
Zanzibar, Wednesday, 14 November 2012: Making voluntary family planning available
to everyone in developing countries would reduce costs of maternal and newborn
health care by $11.3 billion annually, according to the State of the World
Population Report 2012: “By
Choice, Not by Chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development”
Increased
access to family planning has proven to be a sound economic investment. One
third of the growth of Asian “tiger” economies is attributed to a demographic
shift in which the number of income-generating adults become higher than those
who depended on them for support. This shift, says the report, was a
consequence of family planning and brought increased productivity, leading to
economic development in the region.
The
benefits of family planning are not just economic. The report shows the costs
of ignoring the right to family planning include poverty, exclusion, poor
health and gender inequality. Failing to meet the sexual and reproductive
health needs of adolescents and young people in Tanzania, contributes to high
rates of unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortions, HIV as well as shortened
education. In the United States, the report showed that teenage motherhood
reduces a girl’s chances of obtaining a high school diploma by up to 10
percent.
Family
planning delivers rewards to women, families and communities. By enabling
individuals to choose the number and spacing of their children, family planning
has allowed women and their children, to live healthier, longer lives. If an
additional 120 million new users obtained access to family planning, the report
estimates 3 million fewer babies would die in their first year of life.
Commenting
on the UNFPA global report, launched today simultaneously in Zanzibar and in
over 130 cities, Mariam Khan, UNFPA Representative a.i. to Tanzania says, “Family planning is a human right. We are
here to support the government to achieve its target of reaching family’s needs
for contraceptives. If we address the unmet need for family planning, Tanzania
can benefit from a demographic dividend”
The State of the World Population 2012 says that
governments, civil society, health providers and communities have the
responsibility to protect the right to family planning for women across the
spectrum, including those who are young and unmarried
Ms. Khan further says, “While knowledge of contraception is almost universal in Tanzania, only 27
% of currently married women are using a modern method, the current level of
unmet need for contraception has not changed since 2004, 25 % of currently
married women have an unmet need for family planning”. Too many women come
back from health facilities without receiving the information and services they
need for planning their families. This
shows the enormous missed opportunities to increase voluntary family planning use.
She adds, “As we approach the target date
for achieving the Millenium Development Goals, I call on the Tanzanian
government to build on the London summit momentum, make family planning a
development priority and allocate necessary budget for voluntary family
planning”
However, money is just one part of the solution. To
ensure that every person’s right to family planning is realized, the report
also calls on government leaders to:
·
Take
or reinforce a rights-based approach to family panning
·
Secure
an emphasis on family planning in the global sustainable development agenda
that will follow the Millennium Development Goals in 2015
·
Ensure
quality by focusing on specific excluded groups
·
Raise
the funds to invest fully in family planning
This year’s report is being released four months
after a landmark family planning summit in London that resulted in $ 4.6
billion in commitments from donor and developing countries to expand access to
voluntary family planning for an additional 120 million women in developing
countries by 2020.
The report also pulls together all the latest
research that documents the positive effect family planning has on health,
educational attainment and poverty reduction.
For more information or interview requests, please
contact: Communications Analyst Sawiche Wamunza, +255 684 919929, wamunza@unfpa.org
UNFPA works to deliver a world where every
pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s
potential is fulfilled.
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